A Fashion Disaster
by Saki-Rose Chan
Summary: Lelouch Lamperouge; a famous fashion designer and the son of former model, Marianne Lamperouge. He's also infamous among the public for his attitude and everything is going well until he fires another one of his models for his upcoming show, leaving him in a dilemma. That is, until he decides that hiring a random woman off the street to model for him is better than no model at all.
1. Chapter 1

**This isn't what it looks like... Yeah, it's a new story, but it's purely only going to be about 4 or 5 very long chapters and I promise that because the document is super long that I was writing, so I had to break it up into chapters. I couldn't get this idea out of my head and I had to post it. I know I haven't updated my other stories in months, but I've been really busy with school and I'm sorry for that. My winter break starts this week, though, so I promise I can update my other stories next week since the chapters are already mostly written.**

 **Anyway, I edited this the best I could and I hope you all like it.**

 **Enjoy! :)**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 1**

Lelouch was never sure why he worked in the fashion business. Sure, his mother was had been a former model, but he had never thought that back in high school that he'd be running a clothing boutique for a living. He thought he would've gone into a career dealing with science, politics, math, or even a CEO if he wanted to.

If someone had told him ten years ago that'd he'd be a famous fashion designer while also running a local boutique, he would have laughed right in their face.

Seventeen year old Lelouch; the Lelouch who played chess for a living, gambled illegally, got straight A's and B's with one fail (Yes, he failed physical education. His best friend, Suzaku, laughed in his face for it.) when he constantly skipped class, and the same Lelouch who absolutely loathed anything dealing with the fashion world.

The fashion world was an absolute disaster of stress, problematic beings, disappointment, heartbreak, and tragedy.

It's actually the reason why his mother had almost retired from modeling when he was younger. She was never around much, but he never forgot how tired, stressed, and sick she would look every time she returned from a fashion show or a photoshoot. At one point, his mother had suffered from a terrible case of anorexia. He remembers her constantly skipping meals, vomiting up her meals when she thought no one was looking, and exercising for hours on the daily; she ended up with extreme weight loss, constant fatigue, and dehydration.

Thankfully, as much of a bastard as he was (When you have five older half-siblings and three younger half-sisters, you can see your father as nothing more than an absolute bastard.), his father had reluctantly admitted his mother into a rehabilitation hospital for people with anorexia.

He and his younger siblings, Nunnally and Rolo, didn't see their mother for almost two years after that, but when she came back, she looked better, healthier, and happier, and he could feel nothing but relief that she was the happy womance that he grew up with once again.

As much as he had hated fashion, he always found himself taking hours to put together outfits, making sure Suzaku never left the house looking like a hobo (Lelouch had lost count of the many times he had to drag Suzaku back into the house because he insisted on wearing that ugly, worn out jacket with that tacky gray shirt under it), and mindlessly drawing clothes designs in his notebooks.

Once he had graduated from Ashford Academy, he wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do after. His mother, famous and all, suggested he try out modeling with her. The conversation didn't last long:

" _Lelouch, you don't even take after your… Father." She scrunched up her nose. Even she knew he was a bastard of some sorts. "You take after me; raven hair, great skin, a nice figure ("The hell?!" Lelouch had cried out.), and all the looks to go with it. You'd become a great model in no time, especially if you start out modeling with me."_

" _Modeling sounds absolutely atrocious." He replied with much disdain._

" _That hurts me more than you think, dear."_

Hesitantly, Lelouch applied for an art school and decided to major in fashion design (Suzaku thought Lelouch's pride and ego would surely get in the way). Before he knew it, he had graduated from art school and had started up his own fashion business.

And that was four years ago.

In those four years, he quickly made a name for himself among the people of both the homeland Britannia, Japan (the place he had actually grew up in despite being a full Britannian), and in many other places in the world. He had created friends and he had created enemies, but the only important thing was that he had created a name for himself along the way, and he was going to keep his name in the fashion world, even in death.

Just… The one thing that turned him off in the fashion world… And the one thing he hated… He hated nothing more than having to deal with models. Especially snobby, stuck-up ones who gave him a difficult time; mostly the ones his mother suggested he hire.

"Lily, you have _one_ more time before I kick your ass out of this room and have someone else model my line for show!"

They really made his undignified side come out.

Constantly.

"Oh, give me a damn break, Lamperouge! You're nothing but an egoistic, bossy, psycho of a fashion designer!"

Egoistic? Yes.

Bossy? Admittedly, yes.

But a psycho? Absolutely _not_.

"Well, I wouldn't be if you stopped constantly being late for your fittings! This is a whole line you have to model! We can't afford to lose time over this!"

"I have other things to do!"

"You're job is modeling! What else do you do?!"

"At least I do modeling on my own accord and not because my mommy has the entire fashion world wrapped around her finger, so I got everything handed to me on a silver platter!"

"Excuse me?!"

Oh, she was testing his patience today.

"You heard me!"

"Well, guess what?! You're out of a damn job now because you're fired!"

"Fine! No one wants to model for a lanky ass pretty boy like you, anyway!" With that, Lily had stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her to let Lelouch know she _definitely_ wasn't returning to work for him.

Around the room, his employees had watched silently from the side, but they never intervened. No one ever dared to intervene in a situation where he was angry unless they were all looking to be fired. Or… If every single one of them hadn't feared him anyway.

That was another thing.

He was a very difficult person to approach, and if you had not known him for years, being nice was the last thing you were going to get.

( _"Lelouch, you can't keep doing this." Suzaku once told him._

" _And why not?"_

" _Because you're an asshole."_ )

"Lelouch… That was the fourth model this month already…" Shirley, his personal assistant, told him with a disappointed sigh. "The show is in a month and we can't keep finding new models like this. How are we going to find another model in this size in that time?"

The raven haired designer dumped himself in a chair nearby and groaned in frustration. "Just…. Find someone! I don't care whether it's a man or woman! Just bring me someone! I'm done working with prickly, stuck-up, snobbish, annoying models!"

"Lelouch?"

"What it is, Shirley?" he snapped.

Today was not his day.

"Not to be rude, but maybe you never get along with your models is because you're just like them; egoistic, prideful, and stubborn."

Lelouch glared deeply at the orange haired woman, but she remained unfazed. It was a look she was very much use to. "Are you also looking to be fired and go find a job elsewhere? Because trust me, if you do, I can make sure you never find one."

Shirley just shrugged. "You wouldn't do so if someone asked. You're incompetent without me. I'm just telling you the truth rather than lie to your face like _everyone else_ would."

All the employees let out awkward coughs.

"Lie to me instead, then."

" _Lelouch_."

"Ugh! I'm going out. Don't try to contact me. In fact, _no one_ -" His voice rose and he glared at every single person present in the room. "-try to call me and if you do, you're all out of a damn job."

Shirley rubbed the bridge of her nose tiredly. "Have a nice evening, Lelouch."

The raven haired man didn't answer.

He left work in a foul mood way too often.

It was starting to become tiring for him.

* * *

Lelouch was never intentionally trying to be mean… His models just always thought they were better or hand the upper hand when it came to modeling for him as did a lot of models had with the designers they worked with, so they thought they could get away with anything, but not with Lelouch Lamperouge.

When you worked for Lelouch Lamperouge, you were going to sit and listen to him, whether you liked it or not.

Lelouch fixed the hat and sunglasses among his face as he let out an extremely tired sigh. He decided that he might as well scan the crowd for the women and men in the busy streets while he was out, but none of them were good enough for his line.

What was he doing anyway?

He couldn't just grab some random, unprofessional being off the streets of Shinjuku. He couldn't teach them how to model in a month's time. They wouldn't even look like a rookie. That'd be slaughter. Then again… He was Lelouch Lamperouge and Lelouch Lamperouge was going to make anything possible no matter how impossible it looked.

He sipped at his coffee (his third one in a row, he needed it), placed it back on the table and dropped his head into his hand with the most frustrated groan he had let out all day. He saw people in the street turn their head to him in confusion, but he was sitting outside of a cafe and it wasn't his fault they could see him.

"I take it your emergency really wasn't an emergency?" a voice asked him.

Lelouch put his head back up and looked into green eyes. "Suzaku, I'm going to murder every single one of those models. That's the fourth one I've lost in less than a month already. A month! All because they're unwilling to cooperate with me!"

Suzaku rolled his eyes and sat down in the chair in front of his best friend. "Next time, unless it's actually an emergency, don't call me to come listen to you whine."

"And were you doing anything else important?"

"Lelouch, I have a job. I'm not available at your every beck and call." Suzaku had to tell his best friend this almost all the time because it was an habit he had. "And I have a wife, if you don't remember. You were _at_ the wedding, and you were in it."

"I'm sure my sister doesn't mind."

"Oh, no." Suzaku snorted as he waved a waitress over. "Your sister minds a lot. As I also would, she'd like for you to stop calling me at four am in the morning. She won't tell you because she's too nice."

"Yeah, yeah," Lelouch mumbled. "She's a model, isn't she? I'm sure she's not around that much that she's with you."

" _Lelouch_."

"What?"

"I'm her husband and she only sees me maybe a few times a month. Be considerate."Suzaku sighed, immediately taking a sip of the coffee the waitress had put down for him. Being with Lelouch was headache inducing. "Euphy is tired of you."

Lelouch shrugged. "But you still come."

"I've literally told you no so many times and to figure things out yourself," Suzaku shot back.

Lelouch rose an eyebrow.

The brown haired man let out an annoyed groan. "You're such a drama queen that you sound highly convincing," was all Suzaku thought was worth saying to his best friend. "Besides that, what did you call me here for? I have to go back to work in an hour."

"What do you do even do all day designing build-" the raven haired man stopped in the middle of his sentence when his best friend gave him an unimpressed look. He cleared his throat. "I mean, I called you here because I don't know who's going to be my model for my new line. If I keep losing them, at this rate, I'll have to be out of the show."

"I know Euphy currently isn't doing anything. Did you ask her?"

"Euphemia is too small for my line," Lelouch answered. "I would have to make too many alterations to the clothing."

"Hey, Lelouch?"

Uh-oh.

It was that voice Suzaku had when he was going to say something that made sense.

"When you find a new model, have you ever thought about treating them _nicely_?" Suzaku asked him, and the look of horrification on his best friend's almost made Suzaku snort into his coffee. It was really too much to ask of him.

"Be nice? Have you lost it?"

Suzaku put his coffee back down, leaned against the table, and put his chin in his hand. "And what has being an asshole done for you with your last four models, Lelouch? Tell me. Be honest."

Lelouch refused to admit that maybe - just maybe - he was part of the reason he always ended up losing his models. He tried to keep his anger in check, but christ… Some of those models were just asking for him to blow up at them. At least he didn't make a model go running in tears this time…

"Okay, so maybe… Maybe I could be a _little_ nicer…" the fashion designer hesitantly admitted, barely pinching his thumb and index finger together.

Suzaku smiled.

Lelouch gagged.

"And I expect you to keep it that way, Lelouch. You have a successful business, but you could ruin it with your reputation and Marianne won't save you from that," Suzaku explained to him.

"I know, but… but..." Lelouch trailed off in his sentence at the sight of a woman walking towards the cafe, his eyes following as she walked in and the cafe door closing behind her.

"Uh, Lelouch? Are you okay?" Suzaku asked in concern.

"Suzaku."

"What is it?"

"I think I just found my new model."

Suzaku blinked. "Wait, what? Lelouch-"

The raven haired fashion designer had already left his seat and dashed into the cafe, leaving his best friend to sit there in confusion by himself.

His model (well, not _his_ new model yet) was standing there at the counter ordering a drink along with a muffin it seemed. Her clothing consisted of a red t-shirt and dark blue jeans with tennis shoes. She had long, green hair done in a high ponytail, glowing golden eyes, and porcelain skin. She was the perfect size for his line and… And he worked in the modeling world, but it was like he had never seen such a beautiful woman before.

His heart skipped a beat.

She was perfect.

(Albeit she was a little on the short side it seemed; about 5'4, but that wasn't anything he couldn't fix with high heels.)

Lelouch walked up to her and let out a deep breath. He tapped her on the shoulder and the woman turned around, looking at him with a risen eyebrow. She was even prettier up close and Lelouch found his face turning red.

Snapping out of it, Lelouch gave the green haired woman a professional smile and bowed slightly while removing the shades on his face. "If it isn't too much, I would like for you to be my model."

The woman stared at him for a full ten seconds before she snorted loudly. "Please. Either you're trying to ask me out on a date by using the worst line in history that I have ever heard, or you claim you're a scouting company, but you're actually trying to kidnap me."

Maybe this was going to be a bit more difficult than he thought.

Lelouch's face fell flat. "I'm no trying to ask you out on a date or _kidnap_ you. I'm asking you to be my model."

"So a random man sees me and suddenly decides that he wants me to be his model?" This time the green haired woman glared fiercely at him. "I don't believe a word you're saying. Now instead of failing at whatever you're trying to do, I want you to leave me the hell alone."

"Can you just hear me out?" Lelouch asked her.

"I think I've heard enough from you. No random person just comes up to someone and asks them to be a model."

"Actually, that's very common."

"What?"

"Listen, I need to quickly find a new model. My other model quit (more like he fired her), and I have an upcoming show in a month. I can't afford to lose anymore models and you're the perfect person I need for my spring line up. You're a little on the short si-"

Lelouch didn't finish his sentence because a large hand had clamped over his mouth, and he groaned in frustration once again. Damn Suzaku to hell.

"Lelouch, we just talked about this outside." Suzaku said through grit teeth while smiling at the woman.

The green haired woman crossed her arms and cast her glare onto Suzaku now. "Who are you and what the hell do you two want?"

Lelouch removed Suzaku's hand from around his mouth with a hard push. "I said I want you to be my model for my upcoming spring lineup. You'd be perfect."

She still scoffed in disbelief, the distrust showing in her eyes. "As if I'd do anything for someone other than maybe Marianne Lamperouge."

Suzaku saw Lelouch's frown turn into a smirk and dragged a hand down his face tiredly. Lelouch had plenty of shame, but when it came to just exposing himself to the public eye for his own benefit, he had no issue. This wasn't his first time doing this.

God.

And when he snapped his fingers, it meant Lelouch remembered his relation to the world famous model. He never did half of the time. His smirk widened. "I might not be her, but I am her son."

For the second time that day, the green haired woman stared at Lelouch for a full ten seconds before letting out the loudest sound, causing people in the cafe to look over at them. "You? Marianne Lamperouge's son? Isn't he too prideful and egoistic for us all to walk out on the street to scout a model? Someone who's never modeled before at that?"

Ouch.

That hurt.

"I am _not_."

"Oh, he's really going on with this?" the woman looked at Suzaku. "Is he your friend? I feel sorry for you."

Suzaku let out a pleading noise. "Lelouch, no. Stop whatever you're thinking."

But he didn't listen.

"You don't believe me?" A smirk found its way on the fashion designer's face. He pulled off his sunglasses, removed his hat, and walked up to the counter. Smiling at the barista, he said, "I would like to order a white chocolate mocha."

The barista's eyes widened and she suddenly ran through the doors that led to the supplies. She came back with a man (who he assumed to be her manager) and pointed a finger his way. The manager's eyes widened and he sputtered out, "M-Mr. Lamperouge, i-it's on the house! Y-You don't have to pay for a thing!"

"You have got to be fucking kidding me…" he heard his not-yet-model mumble from behind him.

"Lelouch? You mean Lelouch Lamperouge?" a female customer asked out of curiosity.

Lelouch turned around and gave her a charming smile. "Hello, my dear lady."

The female customer let out an indescribable sound and blushed darkly.

"Oh my god, are you giving out autographs?" another female customer asked.

"Kaitlin!" her friend cried.

Successfully causing his intended commotion, Lelouch turned back to his green haired model with the widest of smirks. "Believe me now?"

"You're the hugest asshole."

"It's my brand."

"I'm not even pretty."

"I take it you don't look in the mirror."

"I work in a bakery."

"You can still keep your job."

"I eat pizza all day."

"Not a problem I can't fix."

"I hate you."

"As does half of the people I know."

Ignoring the prideful smirk present upon his face, the woman, eyes narrowed and voice firm, asked, "What's in it for me if I do this for you?"

"A paycheck worth more than your entire being."

…

"Am I not too poor for you?" the green haired woman asked an hour later in Lelouch's boutique, which was obviously in a much higher class part of town. It made her feel out of place. "And just so you know, which you obviously didn't bother to ask on our way here, I've never modeled before. _Ever_."

"You're poor, but I could deal with it. Not any worse than my younger brother marrying an irrelevant singer," Lelouch shrugged as he dug through his desk drawers for a folder. He took out a thin, purple folder and closed the draw back, locking it with the keys around his neck.

"And that's-"

"Rolo Lamperouge. He married my best friend's younger cousin three years ago, and she's an up and coming singer, but still irrelevant to the public eye," Lelouch explained while shoving the folder in her hand.

"Kaguya Sumeragi, you mean? She entered the top 20 with just her debut single."

"Has she had a number 1?" Lelouch asked and the woman only rolled her eyes in response. "In that case, she's irrelevant and he could do better."

"The media doesn't lie when they say you're an asshole, do they?"

"When it comes to me, they're never far from the truth." He shrugged, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "What's your name?"

She smirked at her new employer. "I could be a famous serial killer and you're just asking for my name?"

"Don't answer my question with a question."

The woman rolled her eyes and opened the folder; it was a contract and forms to fill out. "You just have contracts on hand? In your boutique?"

The fashion designer shrugged as he took a seat down at his desk. "You'll never know when you need them."

"Like today?"

"What is your name?"

"Won't you find out when I sign all this?"

"Name."

The woman rolled her eyes. "My name is Cera. Cera Li."

"Cera Li?"

"I'm Britannian-Chinese, which is something you would've found out if you had let me fill out everything first."

Lelouch gave her a flat look.

She ignored it by adding, "By the way, I prefer to be called C.C."

"Something wrong with Cera?"

"It's a name you have no rights to yet." C.C. chuckled before looking back down at her papers to fill out. "I'm to be here for a month only?"

"That's all I need you for unless you'd like to be here longer? You'll get paid much more." Lelouch stood up from the desk and peeked over her shoulder. "You're only twenty-two?"

He seemed surprised.

"I'll be twenty-three in December," C.C. answered. She turned to Lelouch's face, who visibly blush once he realized their faces were four inches apart. "Is that a problem for you?"

"N-No," Lelouch stammered, turning his head back down at her paper.

Maybe he could be cute.

"I didn't introduce myself formally," Lelouch started, standing up straight and fixing his light black sweater. "I am Lelouch Lamperouge."

"I heard."

With a roll of his purple eyes, he continued, "And you will be my new model. I'll introduce you to my company and store employees in two days. Also, you'll be introduced to my head assistant, Shirley and a few others. Clear?"

C.C. gave him a small nod, not looking away from the papers in her lap. "I'm required to always be here?"

"Unless you go to school or something, we can work out hours."

"I work at a bakery."

Lelouch turned his nose up slightly. "In that case, they won't miss you."

"I can't just give my job up. Until I get paid for doing this modeling thing, I'll still need a job to fund myself," C.C. told him.

"You poor people are so difficult to deal with," Lelouch muttered under his breath.

C.C. scoffed. "Maybe don't pick up random models off the street then? What do you think?"

As expected, he ignored her and said, "You better be glad I'm desperate and in need."

"Mommy couldn't get a new model for you?" Cera smirked mischievously, not fazed by the glare that had been sent her way.

"I am inclined to ignore that, you witch," Lelouch sneered.

"You're calling your models witches now?" She gave him a mock look of hurt. "How rude of you."

"It's better than having called you a bitch, don't you think?" Lelouch smirked.

"Then, would you prefer bastard or warlock? I feel like you could be both, though. A bastard warlock, don't you think? It fits well." C.C. smirked back at him.

Instead of getting annoyed like she expected, an impressed look crossed Lelouch's face. "You're different, aren't you?"

"Not really." The green haired woman smiled at him slightly. "I'm not just going to let you get to me, and I'm going to make up for all those poor models you tortured in their time here before you either fired them, or they quit."

"Of course," Lelouch scoffed, leaning against his desk.

"Your friend is cute, by the way," she mentioned offhandedly.

"He's married."

"How unfortunate."

" _Cera_."

She waved him off. "I don't go after taken men, Lelouch."

"My other models surely haven't cared."

"Speaking of your other models, have you tried to get to know them?"

Lelouch rose an eyebrow. "For what?"

"So you won't fire them or make them quit every single time." C.C. told him. "If you get to know the people who work for you, how do you expect to get along with them, neh?"

The raven haired fashion designer gave her a long stare before letting out a loud sound of disbelief. "How about no?" he finally answered.

C.C. honestly couldn't believe her new boss. Sure, she liked to avoid interacting with people as much as she could, but when you're a famous fashion designer known for being an ass, rude, and stuck-up as much as you're known for your clothing line, you had to at least bound to attempt to fix that.

The green haired woman stood up and placed her papers next to Lelouch on his desk, leaning in close to his face where he was standing with a smirk. "Let's just hope the same thing doesn't happen with me then, hmm? Prove the world that you can keep a model for more than a month, perhaps?"

She was voluntarily extending her contract.

Lelouch returned her challenging smirk, leaning in also. They were so close he could feel her breath. "Nothing is impossible for me to prove to the world."

 **And that's it. I don't have much to say except that I hope you all liked it.**

 **Read and Review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Riiiiiiight, so my update took a little longer than I thought, but I did say all these chapters were going to quite long, didn't I? Anyway, thank you so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I really and always appreciate them! And that's all I have to say, so I hope you all like this next part of A Fashion Disaster.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 2**

Lelouch looked through the rack of outfits with a disdainful look upon on his face. He turned to his assistant and waved his hand. The woman sighed in exasperation and wheeled the clothing rack back with the other clothes in storage. He turned around after she left but not before getting a face full of a magazine.

"Who the hell?!" Lelouch shouted in anger, snatching the magazine from his face before he let out an annoyed sound at the site of his tall, beautiful, raven haired mother glaring at him. "Good morning, mother."

"You didn't tell me you had a new model?! What happened to- Oh, why should I even ask? You fired her, didn't you?" Marianne Lamperouge was not a fan of her son's infamous image among the public as a fashion designer. Somehow her name was always grouped with his and she was starting to really NOT appreciate it.

"It just wasn't working out."

"Lelouch Lamperouge-vi Britannia-" At the sound of his second - actually legal - last name, Lelouch cringed. "You have other models who have contracts with you. Why could you have not used any of them? Instead, I have to find out through the damn media that you found a new model. One that no one has ever heard of. I thought you hated irrelevancy?"

Lelouch shrugged in reply as he looked down at his board. "I do."

"Then, who is this girl named C.C.?"

"She's new."

"I get that, but _how_ new?"

"New as in she's never modeled in her entire low class life."

"Lelouch!" Marianne gaped. "Are you looking for the public to make fun of her?!"

"Oh, she's going through training. She'll be a professional model in no time. No worries." Lelouch was pretty confident in himself that C.C. would walk even better than his mother by the time he was done with her. "Besides, I wanted to start with someone new and fresh."

Marianne pinched the bridge of her nose. "This is your new line."

Lelouch shrugged again. "I'm well aware of that, mother."

"Do you know how risky this is?"

"More risky than the fact that you slept and had three children with a bastard known for having many mistresses and wives, and not actually being married to any of them and putting your whole career on the line?" Lelouch shot back with his eyebrows furrowed and his arms folded across his chest.

Marianne let out a tired sigh. "Lelouch, not again."

"Then don't question what I do with my career."

Deciding to ignore her son's harsh tone with her in favor of having a peaceful morning instead, Marianne asked, "Where is this girl, anyway? I want to know what she looks like."

Releasing the tension his body had, Lelouch looked down at his watch. "She should be arriving in five minutes. _Hopefully_."

"Hopefully?"

"Hopefully."

The model let out another tired sigh and took a seat near the double doors. If this girl was great enough for Lelouch to pick a random person off the street, then she was going to be one of the first ones to meet her.

"Mother, what are you doing over there?" Lelouch narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"Waiting for this girl," she smiled.

"Ugh, M-"

"Good morning," a soft voice cheered.

"Morning, Euphemia!" Marianne smiled widely at her oldest child's half-sister; the first second youngest daughter of her former lover's children.

Euphemia gave Marianne a smile while taking off her jean jacket. "Pleasant to see you, Marianne. I hope you're doing well today?" she asked.

"I'm doing quite fine, dear. Your brother is just stressing me out as _always_."

"Oh, yes, Suzaku told me you had a new model that you found in a coffee shop?" Euphemia knit her eyebrows together as she turned to Lelouch. "What an odd place. He said she's quite pretty."

"Is everyone going to question my decisions?" Lelouch bit out in annoyance from his seat at the desk.

"I just said it was an odd place," Euphemia smiled sheepishly. "I respect all the decisions you make, Lelouch. Even if they're odd at times…"

Lelouch sent his younger sister a flat look and she only let out an amused giggle. "What are you doing here, anyway? My new model should be here by now, and I don't want you here. She's not ready to meet any family members."

"You say that like you're marrying her," Euphemia told him.

"She's marrying into my brand. She might as well be."

Marianne and Euphemia sent each other looks before turning back to their relative. "Is she-"

Euphemia was interrupted by the double doors to Lelouch's office opening. In came his new model, C.C., in light blue jeans and a short, white suit jacket with a black top underneath. Completing her look was a pair of black flats that Lelouch scrunched up his nose at.

"You're late," was all Lelouch stated.

"Some people don't have cars," C.C. shot back. A smirk then crept across her pale face. "Of course, someone with tons of money like you wouldn't understand that, though? The pain of we, as you said, "poor people."

"Oh, she's definitely a rarity," Marianne whispered to Euphemia who nodded in agreement.

"I have no time for a witch as yourself. Let's start the tour," the designer grumbled and with a roll of her eyes, C.C. followed him out of the office.

"Well, she is pretty," Euphemia complimented once they left the office all together. "Lelouch has great taste in women."

"Hmm." Marianne crossed her arms under her chest as an amused smile made its way upon her face. "I think she's gonna stay. With the number of models that have fired or quit under Lelouch's contract, I think she's gonna make it through. Don't you think?"

If a model could get rid of her son's attitude, she'd appreciate them for the rest of her life and find someway to make them apart of the family.

* * *

"Everyone, meet Cera Li. My new model."

The women inside the room stopped running around and glanced for a few seconds before going back to work. Lelouch let out an sigh full of annoyance. "I'm going to take it that you all either didn't _hear_ the news or, as always," he bit out," have decided to ignore me."

"It's because what's the point when we know you're just going to fire her," one of the women spoke up.

"I thought you would've known we're tired of your shit, Mr. Lamperouge. It's a miracle that you even have employees," another one joined in and Lelouch sent her a glare, which completely unfazed the woman.

C.C. snorted.

"Girls, that's enough." A voice joined in, and around the corner, a woman with orange hair and green eyes smiled at C.C. "Good morning. It's nice to meet you, C.C. I'm Shirley Fenette, Lelouch's long time assistant." She looked her up and down. "I take it he did do a good job of finding a model. You're quite pretty."

"Ah, that's what he said," C.C. chuckled. "Hmm, maybe if you had been with him, then I would've actually believed him at first."

"What?" Shirley turned to Lelouch, who looked the other way and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"In that case," Lelouch interrupted quickly, not giving the two women room to talk to each other anymore, "How about you give her a tour of the place, Shirley? And when you all come back, I'll start her lessons."

The orange haired woman gave her a boss a small nod of acknowledgement. "Of course. Just give me ten minutes." And with that, she walked away.

C.C. turned to her new employer with a cheshire grin upon her face, and Lelouch inwardly groaned, already knowing what was coming. "I take it you didn't tell her how you found me? Because what an amusing story would that have been to tell her."

"How I found you and what I did to get you is exactly none of her concern, witch" Lelouch said.

"Ah, there goes that nickname again," C.C. chuckled in amusement. "Do you give all your models nicknames?"

"If they deserved it. You're in full deserving of one."

"I'm building a name for myself already. How fun."

Lelouch snorted. "You're far from having a name for yourself here."

"Oh, yes. I have to run on "asshole" twenty-four-seven to have one, is that correct?" C.C. questioned him.

"Watch it, witch."

"I'm starting to warm up to that name, but since it's _so_ rude to call you a bastard, even though you're _very_ deserving of being called a bastard by everyone," C.C. started up. "How about I call you- what's the opposite of witch? A warlock."

"I'd rather you call me a bastard."

C.C. gave his arm a small pat. "Oh, no, darling. Calling you a bastard just secretly rises your ego. I'm fully aware of that already."

Lelouch opened his mouth to reply but closed it after realizing he had nothing to say to that.

At that, C.C.'s grin widened. "You have work to do on yourself, warlock."

"Witch, you're asking to be fired," Lelouch grumbled, but it was an empty threat.

"And if you do that, there's no one else to save your show. A poor fashion designer like yourself with no one else to turn to," C.C. smirked before starting to walk off. "I think I'll go introduce myself to the lovely women I'll be working with."

"Did you just quote The Little Mermaid?" was all Lelouch asked.

"The warlock knew that?" C.C. made a face of mock surprise.

"I have five younger sisters."

"That explains a lot."

"Wh-What does that mean?!"

"Bye, bye, warlock."

Lelouch decided C.C. would, in fact, give him gray hairs by the time this was all over.

…

"How can you do a walk more wrong?" Lelouch told C.C. a day later.

"Well, I'm sorry I've never modeled before in my life. Is that an issue?" C.C. replied, taking a shaky step in her six inch stilettos. She held onto the pole nearby to hold herself up.

"Very funny." Lelouch snapped his fingers. "Alright, from the beginning again."

With a groan, C.C. wobbled to the back of the stage. "It's just so convenient how there's a room with a stage for practicing on the runway," she muttered to herself.

Before she could even take more than two steps forward, her boss clapped his hands _very_ loudly, startling her and causing her to almost fall over. If he made her break anything, she was going to sue. "What is it _now_?"

She tried to sound as pleasant as she could.

"You're doing that all wrong," Lelouch said.

C.C. narrowed her eyes. "You didn't even let me take more than two steps forward."

"You didn't have to take more than two for me to know you were completely going to ass that walk." Lelouch shrugged, getting up from his seat to stand in front of the stage. "Keep your back straight, sway your hips but not too much, and walk with confidence. Remember that and it might help."

C.C. gave him a small nod and took two steps backwards. She'd only known Lelouch for four days, but she already knew why his models probably wanted to murder him. He purposely made things difficult for them and himself, and he didn't seem to care at all about what other people thought as long as his goal was reached.

It was a strange way for him to do things.

The green haired woman looked over at Lelouch with both eyebrows rose, and he signaled for her to go on. This time, she got eight steps forward before his loud clapping _once again_ almost made her trip over her feet.

She crossed her arms under her chest, letting Lelouch know that he could, in fact, speak because she had nothing to say to such. She was sure he let out a laugh that sounded almost evil. _He's enjoying this too much,_ she thought.

"Less hips. You were doing great until about the 8th step." C.C. made a face, which Lelouch ignored. "Now try again."

Walking back to her original spot, C.C. took one step forward and-

"Stop! Just stop it!" Lelouch yelled in horror. "That was the most hideous walk of all walks I had ever seen. That was almost worse than Monica Krushevsky's walk."

"Who?"

"Never mind that!" Lelouch hissed, joining her on stage and looking her straight in the eye. "Watch me, and watch me _closely_."

"Are you about to walk?" C.C. asked with a smirk on her face.

She didn't expect this, but it was going to be an amusing sight.

"Well, who else is going to show a non-professional, weak, below average model like _you_ to walk?" Lelouch said in reply to her with a sneer. "Definitely not any of those women and men outside that door, so watch and learn."

C.C. watched as Lelouch flipped his hair out of his eyes, stood straight, and put his arms to his side. He took a step forward, then two, and more. She watched mesmerized as Lelouch walked exactly as he had told her earlier.

Back straight, hips swaying but not too much, and with oozing confidence.

He was impressive.

He stopped at the end of the stage and posed for a quick second before turning on his heel, and walking back towards her perfectly. He stopped in front of her and pointed to the end of the stage with the most serious face she had seen on him since their first meeting. "Can you do that?"

"Can I?"

"C.C."

"Maybe I can, maybe I can't. It all depends."

"You're doing this on purpose, aren't you?"

"It's what I live for."

"You won't be living for anything if I fire you right now."

"That's the second time this week you've threatened to fire me while knowing you can't risk doing that."

A wry smile crossed Lelouch's face. "You're clever, aren't you?"

"Hmm, how so?"

"This innocent fr-

Her boss was interrupted by the sound of loud clapping - that indeed sounded much like Lelouch's clapping - coming from the doorway. There stood Marianne Lamperouge with a proud look on her face. She walked up to the stage and smiled brightly at her son. "You walked."

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "I did."

"You can model," Marianne smiled.

"Of course, I can."

"On stage?"

"No."

"Lelouch, that walk was amazing. Just go on the runway once and I'll leave you alone about modeling for the rest of your short life that you have to live."

"Mother," Lelouch grit through his teeth in annoyance,"What the hell are you doing here? I'm working with my model."

"I'll choose to ignore your language towards me, but I came to formally introduce myself to your model. I missed the opportunity to do so yesterday and I'd like to do it today before I become busy again," Marianne told Lelouch and C.C. suddenly felt really nervous.

She didn't get nervous.

But this was Marianne Lamperouge.

One of the fashion world's top models until this day.

She felt Marianne's eyes turn on her and hesitantly, she met the model's eyes, who smiled at her brightly. The raven haired woman walked up the small set of stairs and pushed Lelouch over, now standing in front of her.

C.C. never paid much attention before, but Lelouch and Marianne looked just alike; tall, raven hair, purple eyes, and white peach skin. Even their stances were similar to one another.

Maybe it's why their names were always mentioned with one another.

"C.C.?"

"Oh, yes?" C.C. turned her full attention back to Marianne.

"You know this already, but I'm Marianne Lamperouge. Also, as you can see, Lelouch's mother. I know his decision to make you his model was rather… _rash_ , but I'm hoping that you enjoy your time here and my son doesn't do anything else stupid to cause you any inconvenience," Marianne told C.C. with the brightest smile upon her face. "It's wonderful to meet you."

"Are you done?" Lelouch growled, clearly offended at his mother's statement.

"No." C.C. answered for Marianne before saying, "It's also nice to meet you, Ms. Lamperouge. I won't be going anywhere soon. _Trust me_."

She ignored the low growl Lelouch let out.

The smile on Marianne's face widened. "I know you're going to be amazing once Lelouch is done working with you. I saw him demonstrating a wonderful walk for you, so I see you're struggling, but with much practice, you'll be amazing in no time. Won't she, Lelouch?"

C.C. knew from Marianne's voice that she expected an answer.

"You'll be nothing less than amazing when working with me," he answered.

He really carried an attitude for no reason at all.

"Now can you kindly leave and let us get back to work, Mother?" Lelouch asked and Marianne waved her hand in dismissal.

"You know," she started to whisper, stepping closer to C.C., "He really is a nice and gentle person once you get to know him. He's just bitter and…"

"An asshole? A bastard? Either one works really," C.C. finished for Marianne and the raven haired woman chuckled.

"Well, yes, but he has a bad attitude and the media loves it. I think he knows they do, but never does he let them or anyone outside of his friends and the family see his gentle side, so don't take his asshole behavior to heart," Marianne explained. "But from what I saw yesterday, you seem to be able to hold your own against him."

"It's quite easy," C.C. smirked mischievously.

"With that, I think you'll be here for awhile," Marianne chuckled before stepping away and turning back to Lelouch. "I'll be on my way now. I hope the both of you enjoy the rest of you evening."

"You too, Mother," Lelouch mumbled barely loud enough for the raven haired woman to hear, but C.C. saw the small smile across her face as she exited the room.

Once Marianne left, C.C. said, "You should be nicer to your mother. She birthed you."

"I am nice to her."

C.C. tilted her head, the smirk from earlier reappearing. "I forget your definition of nice is not what's in the dictionary."

Lelouch chuckled at that. "You're right. It isn't."

"Hopefully it'll change. I think if you learn to go by the dictionary definition of 'nice', you'll learn to treat others better. " C.C. smiled when Lelouch let out a scoff that wasn't full of scorn as usual. "It'll help your name."

Lelouch rose an eyebrow. "Why would I need help with my name?"

"Maybe you want to be famous rather than infamous. It's just an suggestion."

"So the witch knows what she's talking about?"

"I just know common manners, my dearest warlock," C.C. smiled "Now let's get back to work, shall we?"

She pat the side of his cheek.

Lelouch walked back down the stairs and sat in his original seat. "Do the same walk I showed you earlier."

"I'll attempt to."

"Attempt?"

"It's all I can do for now."

"As expected from a non-profession model."

"Lelouch?"

"What?"

"And you wonder why you have no models."

"Just walk down the damn runway."

* * *

A week later, Lelouch was sure C.C. had her walk down. It just still didn't look…

It didn't look like his walk.

But it would do.

Now, he was with her while she was getting her hair and makeup done for a mock photoshoot and honestly, he could stare at her all day without the makeup, but he never knew what she'd look like with it.

"Here's your coffee, Lelouch," Shirley said while handing it to him. "Also, the photographer is almost ready, so C.C.'s photoshoot should start in five to seven minutes."

"Very well."

Shirley looked down at her clipboard and then back up at Lelouch, who paid her no heed. "Lelouch?"

He didn't spare her a glance. "What?"

"Are you sure you can get C.C. to model professionally in time for the show in three weeks? I mean, she's actually been progressing quite quickly, but the time left isn't long," Shirley explained. "After this, you don't need her anymore, correct? This has to be perfect."

Lelouch turned to his assistant with a glare. Shirley sighed, knowing that she was already in for it." I'll have you know that C.C. is going to be perfect up on that stage. Also, I forgot to mention, her contract has been extended to six months."

"S-Six months? Lelouch-"

"Is that a problem? My business, my decisions."

The orange haired woman let out a small sigh. "Yes, Lelouch."

The silence afterwards was interrupted by the loud voice of his makeup artist and hairdresser coming around the corner. "Lelouch, Lelouch, Lelouch!" the blonde woman yelled in excitement.

"Milly-"

"She looks amazing! Rivalz, bring her out!"

C.C. was pulled around the corner in a red, glittering dress that fell behind her in a train at the back and short in the front right above her knees with four inch white heels. Her hair was put halfway up and the rest falling down over her shoulders in curls. Her makeup consisted of red lipstick, thick black mascara, firey red eyeshadow, and light blush.

Lelouch's mouth unconsciously fell open.

Milly smirked at the raven haired fashion designer's reaction. "She didn't need a lot of foundation, but I applied some BB Cream to her face. Other than that, she's quite the masterpiece, isn't she? She was already pretty before, but now she's just gorgeous."

"I-"

Lelouch didn't know how to form any words at the moment.

"Cat got your tongue?" C.C. asked mischievously. She started to walk forward until she stood directly in front of Lelouch. "You might want to close your mouth or a fly will definitely go in."

"..."

"I've… I've never seen him like that before. It's like he's frozen," Shirley joined in, waving a hand over his face. "He's not moving. That means he must think you're drop dead gorgeous."

A blush crossed C.C.'s face, but she didn't let the smirk that appeared on her face falter. "Aww, the warlock thinks that?"

That seemed to put Lelouch out of his stupor. "No, you look amazing. You're my model. Of course, you're going to look nothing but amazing," he coughed.

The green haired woman tilted her head, rose an eyebrow, and took a step back. "Is that so? So, individually, do you think I'm pretty? Without the fact that I'm your model in mind?" she fired at him.

Lelouch knew what she was trying to do. "I picked you out for a reason, didn't I? Not all women have the luxury of being scouted out on the street by a fashion designer."

"Huh." She let out a low chuckle. "Then, what was that frozen stupor you were in?"

"I was just surprised you could even pull that look off."

It was a bad excuse, but she was cornering him.

"Oh, you're so sad." She walked around him, and without turning around, she said, "We should start our photoshoot, shouldn't we?"

Lelouch took much offense to that. "Sad?"

"Milly, I like my nails. How much does that designer charge just for a manicure and clear coating?" C.C. asked instead, completely pretending she didn't hear Lelouch.

She was ignoring him.

"Um, Lelouch?" Shirley pulled on his black cardigan.

"What?!" he snapped, causing his assistant to jump. After realizing what he had did, he frowned. "I'm sorry, Shirley. I didn't mean to snap at you."

She shook her head, giving him a small smile instead. "Just in case you didn't notice, I don't think that's what C.C. wanted to hear."

"She's a model. Nothing else."

He already knew he was telling himself otherwise.

Shirley gave him a blank look before letting out a sigh. "If that's what you insist."

…

"These are amazing!" Marianne squealed, looking at the pictures of C.C. from the model's mock photoshoot that Lelouch had given her. "She's a natural at this!"

"She could do better," he critiqued.

"Oh, hush, Lelouch. Maybe taking her off the streets might have been a risky move, but when she's modeling this naturally… This has to make the cover of a magazine. Let's publish them."

"No, Mother!" Lelouch didn't want that. "C.C. isn't set to make her public debut until the fashion show. There's still too much for her to work on to even be considered being in a magazine."

"I'm not saying she should be the _front cover_ , Lelouch. "Marianne rolled her eyes as she got up from her seat. "But these are worthy enough to at least be published in an online magazine. Maybe we could even give them to a small fashion magazine company to start her off. It'll give her a start."

Lelouch hated doing things that weren't on his time, and publishing a mock photoshoot in a magazine was not on _his_ time. "No. We're not doing that."

"Please!" Marianne begged her son. "Just this once!"

"I know you, Mother. Once will turn into many more. We're not doing this and that's final."

"I'm just saying this is a lost opportunity, Lelouch. Think about it."

"What is there to think about when I said no?"

"That's the problem. You didn't think," Marianne smiled.

"Mother-" Lelouch started, but was stopped when his brown haired best friend walked in with his younger sister. "Suzaku? Euphemia?"

"Hello, Euphemia and Suzaku!" Marianne greeted the duo.

"Good evening, Marianne and Lelouch!" Euphemia greeted in a happy tone.

"You look like you aren't happy," Suzaku observed his best friend.

"He's more than likely not," another voice joined in.

"C.C."

Ignoring Lelouch, C.C. strolled up to Suzaku and Euphemia. "It's nice to formally meet you- what was it? Suzaku?"

"Yes," Suzaku smiled at the green haired woman. "And this is my wife, Euphemia Kururugi. You might know her better as Euphemia li Britannia."

C.C. gave her a small bow. "Yes, I've heard of you also. Nice to meet you, Miss li Britannia."

The pink haired woman smiled down at the other model. "Just call me, Euphemia, please. It's quite alright."

What C.C. hadn't expected was to be engulfed into a tight hug by Euphemia, who rubbed her cheek against C.C.'s. "You're so cute! I love her, Lelouch!" she squealed.

"Euphy-" Suzaku started but was cut off by Lelouch who had grabbed his hand than had reached out for his wife.

"Don't. She needs friends," Lelouch mumbled.

Suzaku let out a small chuckle. "Ah, so you care for her well being?" he questioned.

Lelouch shot a glare at his best friend before his face softened as he watched his model and younger sister. "The fashion world is a hard place to be in and she has yet to experience the difficulties that comes with it, so Euphemia is good for her. Euphemia has still kept the pure heart she has, so I think if C.C.'s with her, it's going to help," he explained.

The brown haired man nodded in understanding. If his wife could have someone to talk to more than him when she was on the go, it'd give him a break and her someone to confide in. "I think… That's a good idea," Suzaku agreed.

"Oh, you're Britannian-Chinese?!" Euphemia blurted out in surprise. "Oh, did you grow up in Britannia or China? Or-"

"Um, I grew up in Britannia until I was about thirteen before moving here to Japan," C.C. answered the pink haired woman, which Lelouch had noticed was laced with no trace of annoyance.

Much different from their first meeting.

Then again, he did suppose he bothered a random stranger trying to go on with their day.

"Is that so? I've lived here in Japan my entire life unlike my oldest sister, Cornelia, who grew up in Britannia until the time I was born. If that confuses you, my older sister is 11 years olders than me," Euphemia rambled on. "I don't think Lelouch has mentioned it, but I'm the second youngest in the family. Then, it's Carine, Rolo, Nunnally, and Laila! Though, Marybell is older than me by only a few mon-"

"Wait, how many siblings do you even have?" C.C. interrupted with a face full of confusion.

Euphemia let out a nervous laughter. "Well, I think there's 8 mistresses and wives… Mother, Marianne-"

Lelouch decided at that moment it was definitely time to intervene. One of the things that highly annoyed him was his family history and he was not looking to hear it all over again. "Alright! Enough of that! C.C. and I have some work to do, so if you'll _leave_ Euphemia and Suzaku. _You too_ , Mother."

From the desk, Marianne rolled her purple eyes and stood up, deciding that arguing with her son was a loss. "Fine."

As all three of his family members walked out, Euphemia called, "I'll call you, C.C.! Maybe we can go shopping one of these days!"

C.C. nodded with a small smile and Euphy turned around in giddy content.

When his family exited the room, C.C. said, "Sounds like you have lots of younger siblings close in age. Charles zi Britannia made himself quite busy."

"Please, don't remind me that bastard is the father of all of us," Lelouch growled. He balled his fist until they turned white. "He's nothing but a greedy, cheating, lying, bastard of a whore."

"Oh, I can feel the bitterness in that statement, "C.C. stated in amusement.

The fashion designer shook his head before going to take a sit at the desk his mother was originally sitting in. "Come on. We have to go over your schedule for the next month until the fashion show. My bastard of a father is the last thing I want to talk about."

"If it makes you feel better, I'm pretty sure the whole world knows Charles zi Britannia isn't shit. He's never had a good name among the public except for his company products," C.C. told him, knowing it wouldn't do much.

The deep frown on Lelouch's face turned up slightly into a tiny smile. "I know exactly why he isn't shit, though. It's the downside to him being my father."

"I would hope he's more infamous than you," C.C. smirked.

"You're asking to be fired."

…

During practice the next week, Lelouch was quite glad C.C. was getting better at her walk. She had progressed greatly in just two weeks with their constant practicing and the more mock photoshoots they did, the more natural she started to become in front the camera.

Though, the many complaints to having to wake up early, wear high heels, and how he never gave her any mercy when it came to her mistakes was constant. She almost even lost this job by purposely spilling cold coffee on his _very_ high priced shoes one morning when she was irritated.

It was in front of his employees and she was aware that as much as he yelled at every single one of them, he wouldn't dare lose his cool in front of his employees _over shoes_. Instead, he slipped them off and kindly asked Shirley to bring him a new pair from his clothes closet in his office.

Why he didn't fire her on spot?

He was desperate.

At about twelve-thirty pm, Shirley entered the room with his coffee and a magazine in hand. "Lelouch." She handed him the coffee and flipped through the magazine. "I think you might want to see this."

Lelouch rose an eyebrow in interest, and hoped that it wasn't anything that would piss him off not even into the afternoon yet. Shirley shook her head and slowly handed the magazine to him. "It seems like this is your mother's doing."

"My mother-"

In his face was a picture of C.C. from her mock photoshoot; the picture where she was lying on the floor in her red dress, white heels missing, and red roses surrounding every inch of her body. A calm look rested on her face as one of her hands rested flat over her collarbone. On the page next to it was a small, one page article.

"What the hell?!" Lelouch mumbled under his breath, snatching the newspaper out of his assistant's hands and standing up from his chair in lightning speed. His outburst caused C.C. to stop in the middle of her walk and cast a worrying glance to Shirley. The orange haired woman shrugged with a sigh. "This new issue just came out today, which means mother- Ugh!"

"What is going on?" C.C. finally question, crossing her arms under her chest.

"Mrs. Lamperouge haas decided that you'd make your modeling debut in the newest issue of Zero Magazine instead of the set debut date at Shinjuku's Girl Fashion Show in a week," Shirley explained for her seething boss. "You're officially a model now, C.C. Congratulations."

C.C. looked over at her boss's seething face and smirked. "So, is this how it is when someone defie's you?" Lelouch shot her a glare. "Hmm, well, this is good news for me, don't you think?"

"The only good news is that his paper is going to be-"

"Not so fast, Lelouch," Shirley stopped him. "You also might want to see this."

She took out her tablet and showed him the long list of unopened emails. "These are all offers for C.C. to model for their products. Also, we're even still getting calls in. We've been been getting them since this morning."

"I-" Lelouch wasn't quite sure what to say. This hadn't been done on his own time, yet the photos of C.C. in only her mock photoshoot had garnered attention. He then frowned. "We can't. She isn't ready. Not yet."

"What do you mean not yet? This will give her plenty of practice while making preparing for her official debut on the runway, Lelouch. Give her this opportunity," Shirley argued.

"No, I can't. She isn't good enough."

"I might not be good enough yet," C.C. intervened, walking off the stage easily in her four inch heels," But I can take these opportunities to give me more experience. I might be your model and I might work for you, but I'm also doing this for myself. Besides, my contract has been extended to six months, has it not? You'll just ruin your image among the public more because you couldn't even keep me as a model for less than a month."

"C.C." Lelouch hissed.

"Yes?"

"God, I don't know what's stopping me from firing a witch like you."

"My dearest warlock, you know it's my good looks, and the fact that someone standing up to you turns you on," she grinned mischievously.

Lelouch choked and Shirley giggled, not being surprised in the least if that were to be true. "Cecilia!"

"Well, does it?" she continued on, batting her eyelashes innocently.

"God help me…" Lelouch muttered to him while dragging a hand down his face.

"He's hesitant, don't you see, Shirley?" C.C. said, glancing at the other woman slightly. "He just won't-"

Lelouch threw his paper down in defeat. "Fine," he grit through his teeth.

C.C. turned her attention back to him with a smirk even wider than her last. "What was that?"

"I said fine."

"Fine what?"

"You can… You can accept the offers…" Lelouch admitted in a louder voice. "But-"

C.C. rolled her eyes.

"You have to do everything up to _my_ standards, and nothing _but_ my standards. Anything anyone else says is invalid."

The green haired model tilted her head. "Lelouch, I don't think you can-"

"I can and I will," Lelouch interrupted her. "Anything else?"

"Hmm, I think your an ass," C.C. added for a last thought.

Lelouch could do nothing but roll his eyes at the woman he regretfully decided to make his model. "The media and my family thinks the same. Join the party."

"And that you don't deserve half of the praise you get."

"Wait, what?"

"So, let's get back to practicing then, shall we? Shirley, just send me the schedule when your finished going through the offers Lelouch wants you to accept." With that, C.C. gracefully walked back to the beginning of the stage to once against practice her walk.

"You witch! What the hell does that mean?!" Lelouch yelled after her.

"It means exactly what I said."

"Wh-"

"Do you think my walk earlier was good before Shirley came in? I think it looked almost good as yours."

"Shirley." Lelouch hissed, turning to his assistant with his right eye twitching. "We're gonna _work_ her ass off."

The orange haired woman could only let a tired sigh escape her lips. "Oh, boy," she muttered.

Shirley had come to the conclusion that she was in for one hell of ride with her boss and his new model.

 **And that's it! If you all noticed, I'm quite horrible at describing things and I would give a reference for C.C.'s eye makeup, but I'm too lazy to do so lmao. I'm also sure you all have noticed that Lelouch already kinda likes C.C. (that was evident in the first chapter). He just refuses to tell himself that. Soooooo I really have nothing else to say except that I hope you all enjoyed this read.**

 **Read and Review please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm back with chapter 3 of A Fashion Disaster! I know it's been over a month since I updated, but that might just be the updating schedule, especially since I'm back in school. And thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows! I always appreciate them! I apologize for any mistakes (or a lot) present in this chapter, so... Also, off topic, but I really want to write a Suzaku/C.C. fanfic. I love them so much, but I have to finish my other stories. Maybe I could do a one-shot? Hmmm...**

 **Anyways, enjoy! :)**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 3**

As Lelouch had promised, he was gonna work C.C.'s ass off and that's exactly what he did.

C.C. might not react to his difficult personality easily like his former models, but it was clear that she'd slowly get pissed off and do her best to not show it to him. Of course, he hadn't gone full fledged dictatorship yet - that was for _after_ the fashion show - but for now, he'd work her ass off just enough for her to let go of her nonchalant exterior. It annoyed him how she never seemed fazed by anything and that wasn't going to last long… Even if he had to go into Demon mode.

But today was the night before the fashion show and _everyone_ was running around.

He hated disorder, but it was moments like this where it was the only time where he could yell at his employees without complaint and it was the only time they could say shit back to him without him threatening to fire any of them on the spot.

It worked out in a weird mutual way.

"God, Naomi! Can you do anything without tripping over your own damn feet?!" Lelouch yelled after turning around to observe the crash he heard.

The black haired woman, Naomi Inoue, scrambled to pick up the boxes of shoes she had dropped onto the floor. "I'm sorry, Mr. Lamperouge! It was an accident!" she apologized in a whine.

"You have too many accidents around here!"

"You don't have to apologize to that asshole, you know," one of the woman, Mutsuki Minase, told her as she walked by with a clipboard in her.

"You're always asking to be fired, aren't you, Minase?"

"Oh, please, I'm the head of this department. You wouldn't dare to. Especially not with that reputation of yours that continues to go around," the brown haired woman answered boredly.

Lelouch smirked, tilting his head to the side in an amused way. "You're so sure you're gonna keep your job. That's new."

"It's not new. We're just tired of your shit and we know how you work after working for you so long," Mutsuki replied in a bored tone again. "Hey, Ichijiku, help Naomi pick these shoes up."

The said brown haired girl who had been helping to box some shoes from nearby gave Mutsuki a nod before putting the shoe box in her hand down and helping the indigo haired woman.

"Hmm, I'm glad that you're not like my employees who work at the boutique at least." Lelouch's smirk stayed in act and a small smile crossed Mutsuki's face as she continued to head to her destination.

Lelouch looked down at his watch and let out a huff. "Ayame," he called to the light purple haired woman pushing a clothes rack past him, stopping him in his tracks. "Have you seen C.C.?"

Ayame squinted her eyes in thought before answering, "I think Shirley took her to Milly to prep her for tomorrow."

The raven haired designer rose an eyebrow. "Did she not tell you to inform me?"

"I asked her did she want me to tell you." Ayame coughed, looking away from her boss. "But she said, and I quote, that "He doesn't need to know where I'm going. He'll either live or die over it. It's his choice."

Lelouch's eye twitched in annoyance. "Is that so?"

Ayame slowly walked with the clothing rack as she started to push it forward again. "Uh, I need to go, Mr. Lamperouge! Bye!" with that, Ayama scurried away, which Lelouch figured if she hadn't, she would've lost it if she was in his presence any longer.

"Maybe I am a bit too hard on them," he muttered, having noticed Ayame's nervousness around him as long as she had worked for him. She was no Mutsuki.

After finding out that information, Lelouch headed to the floor which belonged to Milly. Well, it was his floor technically, but it was a floor where everything she needed and worked on belonged. He was pretty sure C.C. liked Milly, seeing as the blonde was just as mischievous and dismissive of him as she was.

C.C. being with Milly meant she was in her hiding sanctuary.

Away from him.

When the elevator doors opened, he stepped out of it and right down the hall was the exact person he was looking for standing in a red robe. He groaned. If anything, Milly was doing her whole out spa agenda on C.C. and it was going to be a minute before he would get the woman back to himself.

"Cera!" As much as Lelouch respected her wishes to not be called by her full name, it was necessary in this case because if not, he was absolutely positive she would have ignored him if he had said otherwise.

The green haired woman turned her head to him and Lelouch didn't have to be close to her face to know she had let out an annoyed sigh. He walked down the hall towards her and she started the other way. It didn't take long for him to catch up with his much longer legs. "He'll live or die over it, huh?"

"Ah, Ayame finally told you, didn't she?" C.C. smirked. "I'm glad you're so worried about my whereabouts. Milly is just about to start on my nails. They're long-"

"But dirty, yes," Lelouch interrupted and C.C. rolled her eyes. "But were you ever planning to tell me where you had gone? Then, you ignored all my phone calls."

"I was in the showers obviously, if you haven't noticed my attire," the new model answered, tugging at her robe with nothing underneath for emphasis.

"I'm sure you could've looked at it once you came out."

"Milly also took my phone. She wants me to just focus on her treatment."

"God," Lelouch growled, dragging a hand down his face. "You have an excuse for everything, don't you?"

C.C. turned around, now looking Lelouch in the eyes as she walked backwards. "Do I?" she asked him in a mock innocent voice.

"I don't have time for this, C.C."

"Neither do I, but here I am, handsome," she chuckled.

The "handsome" part caused a small blush to cover Lelouch's face. It was the one thing he hated about her. Despite his constant annoyance with her, she still caused his heart to weirdly thump in his chest. It was much like when he first saw her in the cafe, but now it was even worse. She caused him a weird sense of happiness; he knew he carried a bitter attitude around - if he didn't know, the media was right there to tell him - but she was a challenge for him. He was so used to people being scared or hating him that when C.C. came around, something about her defiance was… weirdly attractive and entertaining.

"Lelouch."

The said man snapped out of his thoughts and jumped back when he realized C.C. had been staring him right in the face. "God dammit, C.C., don't do that!" he shouted, holding a hand over his pounding chest.

She smirked. "Were you thinking about me?"

Not wanting to reveal himself, Lelouch stood straight and fixed his black cardigan back onto his shoulders, which had slipped off when he jumped. "Why would I think about a witch like you?" he replied with a smirk of his own.

C.C.'s didn't falter as she put her hand over her heart in mock hurt. "Lelouch, you're breaking my heart."

"So you're quoting Star Wars now?" Lelouch asked her.

"A geek?" C.C. asked with a small grin.

"My oldest brother is," Lelouch told her, returning her small grin.

Finally, Lelouch and C.C. had returned to the front of the mini hair salon and inside the boutique was Milly, with the help of Rivalz, setting out all the supplies she needed for C.C. She caught sight of them and waved them in. "Hey, Lelouch! I see C.C. brought you back with her." A mischievous smirk crossed her face. "Was he showering with you?"

Lelouch almost choked on his own tongue and C.C. hit Milly in the arm, who kept laughing in delight at her own suggestive joke. "As if I would shower with this asshole," C.C. answered.

"Witches aren't on my preference," Lelouch grumbled.

Milly let out another chuckle as she grabbed C.C.'s arm and sat her in the black and red salon chair. "Care to stay and see us beauty up C.C.?" the blonde haired woman asked her employer.

Lelouch rolled his eyes while fishing his phone out of his pocket. It was six twenty-five. He needed to get back to work upstairs. "No, thank you, Milly. I have much work to do before the fashion show tomorrow."

"You're gonna look amazing, C.C.!" Milly squealed, hugging the green haired woman from behind.

C.C. lightly patted the woman's arms wrapped around her and Lelouch smiled slightly at the sight.

She made another friend already.

As he left the room, Lelouch said, "Behave, witch."

"Of course, warlock."

He didn't need to turn around to know that something between a smirk and a smile was on her face.

…..

A light clicked on.

C.C. put the blankets over her head.

Someone tugged at her blanket.

She tightened her hold.

Someone thumped her head with what felt like a book and C.C. angrily took the blankets from over her head to glare at the person. She rubbed at her eyes to clear her sight, and she really wished she hadn't done that because there sat her asshole of a boss, casually sitting on her desktop next to her bed with his legs crossed.

An evil smirk was present on his face. "I said I would work your ass off, did I not?"

C.C. looked at the clock to see it was only seven am and she dropped her face into the pillow, deciding that she didn't care if she died of suffocation or not. "You're a bastard," she muffled into her pillow.

Lelouch loudly clapped his hands; it was that clap she hated. "I know I am. The show starts at two o'clock and we have a schedule to be on, so chop chop. We're going out for breakfast and Shirley is waiting in the limousine."

"Is she your girlfriend?" C.C. asked just to try to get on Lelouch's nerves.

"As if I would date a woman who's still moping after breaking up with her boyfriend." She didn't have to look at Lelouch to know he did that cute - cute? - little nose scrunch he does.

"Who was it?"

"I'll tell you if you get up," Lelouch told her.

C.C. sat up from her bed, disregarding the fact that she forgot she went to bed in a large t-shirt only the night before. Lelouch worked in fashion. She was sure he saw legs all the time. "I'm so glad that I know you're a liar, so I guess I'll never know."

"Hmm, you're learning quickly," Lelouch said, happening to be looking anywhere but her.

"Does the sight of my nice legs turn you on?" C.C. smirked.

"Shut up, witch."

"You didn't deny it."

In silent frustration, which she assumed it was, Lelouch slipped off the table and headed to exit her bedroom. "I'll meet you in the car," he mumbled. "Be ready in ten."

"I'm happy that you like my legs," C.C. called after him.

She smirked at the frustrated yell he let out.

…...

"I don't know why I couldn't have pizza," C.C. complained as she stepped out of the car with Lelouch. "I'm very sure I would do my absolute best if I had pizza for breakfast."

Lelouch gave her a flat look when he met her on the other side of the black limousine. "C.C., I'm a fashion designer and you're a model. Tell me why I wouldn't let you have pizza on the day of the fashion show."

"Because you're with most of society's thinking that models need to be tall, skinny, and thin to the bone when that is a very unhealthy way of thinking. Many women are proud of their bodies just the way they are and would love to model, but because of society's beauty standards, they're considered ugly while someone with a body like me is considered beautiful," C.C. answered in one breath.

Lelouch tilted his head to the side and squinted. "C.C., wh-"

"And I know you think the exact same thing because your mother suffered from anorexia many years ago."

Lelouch opened and then closed his mouth. He hadn't expected such a long and serious answer from the green haired woman next to him, yet… In some ways, she was right. He did hate that about the fashion industry - it was the reason he was always worried about his mother. It was their fault she even had to suffer, but in the process, he slowly gained the way the rest of the fashion world thought. He always knew his boundaries, though.

"That answer stumped you, didn't it?" C.C. asked with a small smirk, causing him to give his attention back to her.

"No… You're right, as much as I hate to admit it," Lelouch grumbled. "But that's still not a healthy food choice for you to eat right before you go on stage. You'll look bloated."

"You ordered me avocado bread and orange juice. I might as well shouldn't have eaten."

"I let you have a blueberry muffin."

"Yes, because a muffin smaller than my palm is filling."

Not wanting to hear anymore of her complaints, Lelouch, begrudgingly, said, "You can have pizza after the show. I promise."

In a way he had never seen before, C.C.'s eyes lit up and she slipped an arm around his. "Have I ever told you that I loved you?"

A sound of disbelief escaped Lelouch's mouth. "You know how to suck up to someone, don't you, witch?" he asked her, but with amusement and not annoyance.

"I use it when needed," she shrugged.

And on their way into the venue, Lelouch never shrugged off C.C.'s arm and neither did she bother to remove her hold.

…

"You look so amazing that I might cry," Milly sobbed as she observed C.C. in the very first outfit she was supposed to model. The theme for the Shinjuku Girl's Fashion show was Summer, and she looked ever so amazing in a black, leather skirt with a big black bow around the waist that trailed behind her like a veil, a yellow, ruffled, shoulderless top, and her long hair in a high ponytail cascading in waves around her shoulders with another black bow, and six inch black high heels.

Her makeup consisted of yellow and silver eyeshadow with light lip gloss, mascara, and short fake eyelashes.

Lelouch looked her up and down and for the first time since she met him, a small smile crossed his face. "You look… Amazing," he told her genuinely.

She smiled back at him. "Thank you."

"Places everyone! The show starts in five minutes!" the stage manager called out to everyone and C.C. suddenly felt very, very nervous for this moment.

This was the moment Lelouch had been training her for for the last month. What if she tripped? What if she ripped someone else's dress while walking? What if she even _fell_ off the stage?

"C.C."

It was Lelouch.

The designer placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort, most likely noticing her sudden fidgeting. "Just pretend it's you and me out there like it is when we were practicing together and no one else. It's just _us_. No one else is out there but you and me."

C.C. nodded as he led her to her spot.

She was the fifth model to go on stage once it started.

"And remember," Lelouch said firmly. "Keep your back straight, sway your hips but not too much, and walk with confidence. Remember that and you'll do great."

"Lelouch," C.C. called back before he walked away. He looked at her, telling her that she could continue on. She bowed slightly. "Thank you."

A small smile crossed his face before he walked off to their booth as the fashion show started and the MC started to speak. It wasn't long before it was time for the models to walk out on stage in order.

C.C. stepped out on stage with the blinding lights.

 _Back straight._

 _Sway your hips but not too much._

 _Walk with confidence._

And suddenly, C.C. felt like she was the only person in the room while modeling every one of Lelouch's designs one by one.

* * *

When she walked off the stage after the last dress, she was bombarded by all of the employees from the company that Lelouch had brought with him today, including Milly. "Are you sure you've never modeled before?!" Ayame exclaimed.

"You were amazing!" Ichijiku told her, eyes shining in awe.

"Great job out there," Mutsuki smiled at her.

Milly pulled the green haired woman into the tightest hug C.C. was sure anyone had ever given her in her life. "My makeup and Lelouch's clothes line on your body together?! It's official! Only you're allowed to wear my makeup and his clothing together!"

"I wasn't that good…" C.C. chuckled, knowing that doubting herself would probably do her no good with these women around.

"No good?!" they all questioned in union.

It didn't take long for C.C. to tune the women out and it wasn't hard for her to sneak away from them either. Not when they were all fangirling with one another over her. The person she wanted to see was Lelouch. He was nowhere to be found at all and she was sure that he'd be the first person waiting for her when she came off stage, but he wasn't.

She did more searching backstage before she found him in a corner, head down, and body shaking. She frowned at the sight. She did do something wrong, didn't she? "Hey, Lelouch, if I'm not to your liking, I can-"

"No, no," he cut her off, voice cracked. "You were amazing out there."

C.C. tilted her head in confusion before a smirk of realization crossed her face. "Are you crying? Is _the_ Lelouch Lamperouge getting emotional because I saved his new clothing line from ever being shown to the public?" she teased.

Oh, this was great blackmail material.

Lelouch finally looked up to her with the hardest glare he could muster, eyes red and dry tears on his face. "N-No, I'm not! I just-"

"You're pathetic." C.C. shook her head in clear amusement. "There's clear evidence on your face and the first thing you say is that you aren't crying. How smart of my warlock."

"Your walk still isn't all that," Lelouch grumbled.

"I'll take that as a compliment," C.C. chuckled, knowing that Lelouch didn't really mean the words that had escaped his lips. "All those hours of training really worked out for me. Of course, without the yelling part. Your loud mouth is the last thing I want to hear while on stage."

"Shut the hell up, you witch."

"I'm going to have to disobey that command. Now… About my pizza?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes and stood up from his chair, fixing his jacket and pulling out his wallet. He took out a black credit card and almost handed it to her before snatching it back. He smirked. "I forgot. You have an interview after we leave, along with a photoshoot, and _then_ you'll have your pizza."

C.C.'s face dropped immediately. "You didn't tell me I had more work scheduled after this?"

"I said I was going to work your ass off, and working your ass off includes not informing you of future schedules if I don't want to."

"Oh, you're a bastard."

That caused Lelouch's smirk to widen. "I know."

…

"Now turn to the left… Great, great!" the photographer cheered as he clicked the camera. "You're a natural!"

Lelouch watched in satisfaction as C.C. had to professionally force different smiles on her face while also posing like her life depended on it. She was pissed off at him, but he was impressed she put so much work into her modeling. It had been a minute since he'd seen any of his models look this focused _and_ angry in a shoot at the same time.

She was introduced earlier to the world during the fashion show and officially during her interview, but her interview made him come to a realization that he would've rather have not come to.

* * *

" _My name is Cera Li. Nice to meet you all."_

 _Lelouch winced at the loud screams from the crowd, surprised at the number of fans she had gained already; especially after today's show._

" _So, Ms. Li, tell us," the interviewer, Villeta Nu, started. "How does it feel to be an official model with one of the world's most famous fashion designers? Not to mention all the attention you're receiving for your modeling already."_

" _Hmm, it feels strange still. I was found on the street after all," C.C. explained, loudly tapping her heel on the floor. Lelouch was the only one who realized that tap was made for him. "As for the attention, it seems that Mr. Lamperouge's mother got a hold of my pictures and released them to the public."_

" _I heard it was only a mock photoshoot? Is that true?" Villeta questioned._

" _Yes," C.C. chuckled, turning to look at the picture of her that had popped up on the screen. "That was only a practice photoshoot Mr. Lamperouge made me do for practice, but it got into the hands of Mrs. Lamperouge instead."_

 _Lelouch nodded in approval._

 _So far C.C. was answering these questions quickly and professionally._

" _Now, Lelouch Lamperouge is known for his bad attitude among the public. Does he have as much of an attitude as the public says?" Villeta asked, raising her eyebrows in curiosity._

 _Lelouch saw C.C. look in his direction and she snapped her head back, but he didn't miss the evil glint cast in her eye. He all of a sudden felt very worried._

" _Oh, he's an absolute asshole. I hadn't known about this interview until the very end of the fashion show and he said, I quote, "I said I was going to work your ass off, and working your ass off includes me not telling you things." C.C. shook her head. "I was simply just tired and hungry afterwards, but the rest of my schedule is super busy today and he didn't think I had a right to know."_

 _A look of sympathy crossed Villet's face. "So Lamperouge continues to live up to his bastard persona, huh? You don't even get a break either, do you?"_

 _A fake, but impressionable, look of sadness crossed C.C.'s face. "Ugh, he can just be so awful, but he's also an amazing designer, so that partly makes up for his attitude."_

 _He was going to kill her after this interview._

" _But, he can be very playful. Even sweet and caring when he wants to. I've seen it myself and he just shows it to the people he cares about the most and I don't think anything is wrong with that at all. He just has to practice showing it to others," C.C. added on._

 _Lelouch suddenly felt his face burning and his heart start to pound in his chest._

 _An amused smile crossed the silver haired interviewer's face. "Hmm, are you all close to one another?"_

" _Well… He's the first friend I've had," C.C. admitted, in what Lelouch could tell, truthfully. There was no mischievousness in her eyes nor self-amusement. Just a small smile present on her face as she continued on with the interview more professionally than he thought she would have._

 _Now his heart really felt like it was about to burst out of his chest._

" _Ah, that has to be the sweetest thing I've heard anyone say on this show in awhile," Villeta chuckled. "Does he feel the same way?"_

" _I might annoy him at times, but I have no doubt that he does."_

 _He felt more for her than what a friend felt for another friend._

" _So, Lamperouge does have a heart and we've heard it first thing from his new model, Cera Li," Villeta told to the cheering audience before turning back to C.C. "Thank you for clearing your afternoon to spend a few minutes with us, Li."_

" _Anything," C.C. smiled and waved at the audience, who cheered even louder._

 _Lelouch didn't get to see C.C. walk off the stage because he ran to the bathroom, locked himself in a stall, and screamed at himself in frustration over falling in love with one of his models._

 _He was sure he frightened some people from coming in to the bathroom._

* * *

"Break! Makeup retouch!"

The photographer came up to Lelouch and clapped his hands in excitement. "Your new model is a natural! She's absolutely amazing!"

A small smile crossed Lelouch's face as he looked over at C.C. getting her makeup retouched by Milly. She really was too pretty for words… "Yeah, she is…" he trailed off a bit too dazed for the photographer in front of him.

He popped a knowing eyebrow up. "Do I sense affection there?"

Lelouch's soft look immediately soured into a deep frown. To add to it, he glared fiercely at the blond photographer. "Gino, do you ever know when to shut the hell up?"

"You didn't deny it," the blond shrugged.

"Gino."

"I told myself the same thing with Kallen. After breaking up with my ex-boyfriend, I tried to convince myself that I hadn't come to fall for someone again so quickly, but alas, I did," he chuckled to himself. "Also, Kallen wanted me to tell you that she should kick your ass for forbidding her from modeling."

"She's pregnant," Lelouch stated firmly. "She's not modeling again until I'm sure she's given birth to that baby."

Kallen was one of the few models under Lelouch - just like C.C. - who wasn't scared to death of him. The difference is that Kallen had been modeling since she was seventeen years old, so she was use to modeling and dealing with arrogant, snobbish assholes. Lelouch included.

Of course, he wouldn't say he wasn't slightly intimidated by the red headed model when she threatened to beat him to death after he told her during her fourth month of pregnancy that he was putting her on maternity leave. Gino had to drag her from the room and calm her down. He hid behind his desk for safety when his door was continuously banged on in anger as she yelled and Gino calmly gave her a scolding.

Gino and Kallen were complete opposites.

It made him wonder how they were even married.

"She'll kick my ass for telling her you said that."

Lelouch shook his head with a roll of his eyes. "It's the same thing I've been telling her for the last four months."

"You don't live with her and her pregnancy hormones," Gino shuddered before that knowing smile from earlier crossed his face again. "So, you like C.C.?"

"I'm ignoring you," Lelouch grumbled.

"Ah, what is to be young and in love."

"I'm older than you by at least two years, Gino."

The blond shrugged with a smile, picking his camera back up that he had placed on a nearby table. "It makes no difference, but someone finally found looooove," Gino sung.

"I'm going to fire you."

"I'm a freelance photographer, Lelouch."

Lelouch just grumbled something under the threat of "I'll murder you if you don't stop talking," and that only caused another laugh to escape Gino's lips before he gestured to C.C. and Milly that their time was over.

Lelouch sat down on the stool at the table and watched C.C.'s face again. She seemed less pissed now and more happy - calm even. He could tell that she was genuinely enjoying the photoshoot now, and smiled when she almost tripped over her heel while doing a spin for Gino. A laugh angelic to Lelouch's ears came out and just as earlier, a dazed, lopsided smile crossed his face.

Was this what it felt like to be happy and in love rather than angry all the time?

He decided that he liked this emotion.

"Lelouch!"

A finger snapped in front of Lelouch's face, causing him to come out of his daze and there stood C.C. - in all her beautiful glory he decided - with a risen eyebrow. "We're finished with the photoshoot."

"Already?"

"We've been here for almost three hours, Lelouch. Were you zoning out the last twenty minutes?"

"No," he lied, a frown etching on to his face. "I was just thinking."

"So, you zoned out?" C.C. concluded.

"Whatever you wanna call it, witch," Lelouch said, now feeling nothing but annoyance from the woman he was thinking about not too long ago.

"Oh, yeah. It's almost going on eleven-thirty, but we still have plenty of time to order my pizza that you promised me. It's perfect timing since we haven't had dinner yet," C.C. told him with a small smirk.

"We?" Lelouch rose an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm not paying for it." She shrugged, then placed a hand on top of Lelouch's head to pat it. "Liars don't get out of punishments. Besides, I didn't plan to pay for it anyway."

"C.C." Lelouch hissed.

"Yes?" she answered in a mock innocent voice, dragging her hand down the side of Lelouch's neck and comfortably placing her hand on his shoulder. She was closer in his space than he had realized.

The designer failed to stay annoyed at C.C., her delicate fingers on his shoulder now a complete distraction for him. He let out a small cough before mumbling, "I'll buy your damn pizza for you,"

And that he _did_.

He had sent it to his condo and when the two pizzas arrived, he had never seen C.C. look so happy in the last month he had known her. He had to grab her wrist to make sure she wouldn't dive into the pizza before he said she could.

"Did you wash your hands?" Lelouch asked firmly.

C.C. glared at him. "I'm not five."

"No pizza."

"I hate you," C.C. muttered, getting up from his couch and heading to the bathroom.

He watched her again, forcing himself to look away from her long legs once again because the woman had decided to discard her own clothes and change into one of his large white dress shirts. She said it was more comfortable than her own clothes, yet despite how it made him feel, he didn't argue with her.

While she was gone, he went to one of his cabinet's and took out a bottle of champagne, also grabbing two glasses to take with him. When he arrived back in the living room, C.C. had already started on the pizza and she glared at him, daring him to say anything to her.

Lelouch rolled his eyes, placing the champagne and glasses on the table, and sitting down next to her. She looked at him curiously. "What's that for?" she asked, nodding her head to the bottle of champagne.

He smiled at her slightly. "Well, today was a success for me and you both, so in this case, this causes for a celebration," he answered.

"You mean a success for you because you finally found someone to model for an asshole like you at the last minute," C.C. smirked as she grabbed for another piece of pizza.

"Shut up, witch," Lelouch playfully told her, a genuine smile spreading on his face right after. "No, it's a success for us both. If I hadn't been desperate, I would've never found such an amazing model as yourself… You really helped me out, And truthfully, if you don't want to, you don't have to do the extended 6 months on your contract."

What was he saying?

"No!" C.C. blurted and leaned back after her outburst. She put her pizza down and wiped her hands with the napkin on the table. "I mean, I… I enjoy modeling for you. I was in it for the money at first and our challenge, but I discovered that I really liked it in the process," she admitted to him softly. "I even finally made some friends… like Milly, Euphemia, and maybe even you." A small smile crossed her face.

Lelouch looked away, feeling his heart pounding for the umpteenth time that day and a blush rising to his face. To distract himself, he opened the bottle of champagne and poured it into the glasses. "W-We should drink now," he grumbled and the sudden change of his mood made C.C. raise an eyebrow, but she ignored it in favor of thinking that he was flustered by her words.

He passed her a glass and in a soft voice surprising even himself, Lelouch asked, "So you would like to stay?"

C.C. scooted closer to Lelouch until their hips were touching and her bare legs grazed his own. She didn't notice him stiffen at the contact as she said with a smile in her soft voice, "I would love to stay."

 _She's going to drive me crazy_ , Lelouch thought. "You have to work for your pizza from now on," he told her jokingly and C.C. pouted.

"I guess that's fair," she reluctantly admitted with a shrug. "And you have to be nicer to your models all together. Not just me."

"Maybe when they stop acting like the head bitches in charge," Lelouch scoffed, taking a sip from his champagne.

" _Lelouch_."

He sighed, looking at her slightly with a tired smile. He had never willingly listened to anyone's advice before. He rarely listened to his own mother's. "I'll… I'll try."

"Growth," C.C. muttered into her glass and Lelouch playfully pushed her in the ribs with his elbow. C.C. smirked. "I'm right and you know it."

"Maybe."

…

C.C. woke up the next morning to something warm and in a position a little more compromised than she would've liked; her legs were intertwined with Lelouch's, one of his hands was wrapped securely around his waist and somewhere in the night, it had slipped up her shirt. A blush appeared on her face as she looked up to see Lelouch still sleeping, his breath steady and a peaceful look on his face; that was a rarity.

She laid her head back down on his chest, finally remembering that they had drank a whole bottle of champagne together and fell asleep together on his leather couch. She smiled to herself slightly, not knowing what made her so happy about it, and closed her eyes again, comfortably falling back to sleep on Lelouch's chest.

The comfortableness of that sleep only lasted for about forty-five more minutes before both her and Lelouch were awaken by a loud banging on his door. She got up first, grumbling, "Go get your door, Lelouch."

"I don't want to," he mumbled, throwing an arm over his eyes. "And I can't do that with you on top of me."

C.C. blushed when she realized she had been accidentally straddling the designer, hurriedly climbing off of him. He lied there for another ten seconds, only getting up when the banging on the door had become increasingly unbearable. "God, who the hell is that?" he muttered under his breath while walking to the door, C.C. slowly following behind him.

"What the hell do you wa-" Lelouch stopped in the middle of his sentence when he saw his mother at the door along with his younger sister, Nunnally. He followed their line of wide eyed vision to see them staring wide eyed at C.C. behind him… In only one of his shirts… Fuck.

Nunnally spoke up first. "I didn't know your new model was your girlfriend…" she trailed off, observing her older brother's state of dress. Marianne happened to choke slightly from the side.

"We're dating, Lelouch? You should've told me," C.C. said with a small smirk of amusement.

She knew it'd piss him off.

"We're not dating!" Lelouch blurted out. "I- Why the hell are you two here?!"

"We're supposed to meet for lunch with everyone else later, remember?" Nunnally reminded him. "You said to meet you here and it's eleven-twenty."

"God damn it!" Lelouch cursed under his breath. He walked back into his apartment calling behind him, "Give me twenty minutes to get ready."

C.C. was left at the door with Marianne and Nunnally. She put out her hand to Nunnally. "Nice to meet you. I'm-"

"C.C." Nunnally smiled softly. "I'm Nunnally, Lelouch's younger sister. I saw you on stage last night. He picked out an amazing model."

"Thank you," C.C. smiled and moved to the side. "You two can come in if you like. Um, just to clarify, we aren't dating. We were celebrating yesterday and fell asleep. I know I'm dressed kind of-"

"It's alright," Marianne dismissed, walking in with Nunnally following behind her. "The fact that you even fell asleep here without Lelouch kicking you out is an accomplishment." the raven haired woman continued on when she saw C.C.'s confused face. "Lelouch hasn't had too many good reports of kicking his drunk or tired models out of his home."

C.C. rolled her eyes at that.

What an _asshole_.

"If you aren't busy, you're welcome to come along with us to lunch," Marianne told C.C. as the green haired woman cleared the coffee table of the emty champagne bottle and empty pizza boxes. "It's usually a family thing strictly, but you're welcome to come."

C.C. shook her head with a small laugh. "I'm fine right here. I'll probably shower after Lelouch is finished and then leave."

"Lelouch isn't too happy about it," Nunnally laughed. "He hates being around our other siblings except for Euphemia and some of my other older sisters. He hates all of our brothers. Not including Rolo. He's our brother."

"Oh, Odysseus is a sweetheart," Marianne waved off. "Lelouch is just upset he doesn't have that same heart."

C.C. chuckled at that. "He didn't seem too happy about Rolo either."

"Did he tell you about that?" Marianne questioned with a deep sigh. "He was so upset at Rolo's wedding that I wondered if he was jealous or something."

"Something wrong with Kaguya?"

"No, Kaguya is an absolute sweetheart just like Odysseus," Nunnally said. "He's known Kaguya since he was a child. She's Suzaku's cousin and Lelouch had no issue when they were dating, but when they announced their engagement, he was very upset."

"I just put it at over-protectiveness. He'd been taking care of Nunnally and Rolo all his life and he's not use to seeing them independent," Marianne told her and then she made an 'o' with her mouth. "He almost fought Suzaku after he broke up with Nunnally."

"You used to date Suzaku?" C.C. questioned.

"We dated for maybe a year before he admitted he still liked Euphemia. I wasn't too hurt about it," Nunnally laughed. "But Lelouch feels like he has to defend me all the time."

"I've heard my name too many times," Lelouch said as he walked around the corner in black pants, a long sleeved gray shirt, and a black cardigan with a black bracelet around his wrist. "I hope you all aren't gossiping about me."

"Of course, we are," C.C. smirked and Lelouch shot her glare.

"Go shower, witch."

"Of course, warlock," C.C. mock bowed before grabbing her clothes from yesterday and going to his bathroom. She heard Lelouch yell out an embarrassed "Mother!" with no context just before she closed the door.

 **And that's it! I don't really have anything else to say, but I know it wasn't edited the best and I'm so bad at writing descriptions, so I apologize for that. Also, Lelouch's revelation to himself is interesting, isn't it? Lmfao. Anyways... this story only has about two more chapters and that's it!**

 **Read and Review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hellooooo! I'm back with the new chapter of A Fashion Disaster! I have one small announcement though - This story has been pushed up to six chapters because what I thought fit in the last two chapters ended up not fitting into two chapters, so I had to add another, making this story officially a six chapter story instead of five. I'll try to make at least two updates this month if I can. I tried to last month, but life got in the way.**

 **AND thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! The sudden influx of them made me so happy and motivated me so much. I just want to tell you all that each and every review, favorite, and follow made me really really happy and I'm glad you all our enjoying my story just as much as I enjoy writing it!**

 **Anyway, the first part of this chapter is Lelouch's POV and then the rest of it is C.C.'s since I'm sure you all would love to know her insight on certain things hehehe (that's my evil laugh).**

 **Enjoy! :)**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 4**

For the next few weeks, C.C. was constantly running around with schedules; they were accepted offers from other companies and her own schedules planned by Shirley. She was doing interviews, photoshoots, commercials, modeling, traveling, and promoting so much that she was sure she never had any time to herself anymore. She even went to Britannia to have a scheduled photoshoot in front of the former, rundown royal palace back when it was a monarchy very long ago.

She hadn't been to Britannia since she was a child, and she forgot how cold it could get it. She was almost in tears from the freezing cold, having to wear a knee-length skirt out in the snow. It was a photoshoot with the intention of making it a story; she was the lover of a nobleman from many years ago and died in his arms. They meet many many years later after being reincarnated, but their love doesn't last long after she dies from her sickness in the middle of snow.

She was sure she had hypothermia and Lelouch told her she was exaggerating.

Of course, he would.

He was bundled up while she barely had any clothes on.

C.C. couldn't lie and say she didn't enjoy what she did. She was still fairly new to it still, but she had come to love modeling so much that her complaints were only mostly from when Lelouch lied to her about her pizza.

She would work for it, but he'd also put restrictions and firmly told her that she was allowed to have no more than one pizza each time he let her have it.

He also took in another model in the last few weeks. Her name was Anya; a young, strange nineteen year old with pink hair and red eyes. Surprisingly, Lelouch got on greatly with Anya. Mostly because she listened to him, did as he asked, and wasn't much of a talkative person.

She was the perfect model for Lelouch.

Currently and begrudgingly, C.C. was being held hostage by Lelouch to meet one of his more famous models. Her name was Kallen Kozuki and she had just given birth to a newborn son a month ago. Who didn't know Kallen Kozuki? Not only was she a famous model under Lelouch's fashion company, but she was also known to be as intimidating as Lelouch was (except with a kind heart), especially on stage.

She smirked when the first thing Kallen said as she walked into this office was, "I should really beat your fucking ass, Lelouch. I was doing _nothing_ for four months and you deserve to be murdered mercilessly for it."

"There's a baby in here, Kallen. How inappropriate," Lelouch replied with a smirk.

Kallen looked down at the carriage she was holding in her hand covered with a blanket. She glared menacingly at him. "Takeshi is asleep, so he won't hear if I kick your ass either."

"I haven't even formally met her, but I like her already," C.C. spoke up.

"Shut up, witch."

Kallen's eyes flickered to where C.C. was standing a few feet away and suddenly the pissed off red head's whole demeanor changed. She placed the baby down next to Lelouch on the other side of the table before walking over to her and placing a hand out. "You must be Cera Li. The one that _bastard,_ " she nodded her head sharply towards Lelouch, "Found on the street."

"I found her in a _cafe_ ," Lelouch emphasized.

"Street," Kallen told him, smiling at C.C. again right after. "I'm sure you probably already know, but I'm Kallen Kozuki. I met this bastard through his mother back when I had just gotten kicked out of my former company for punching my CEO in the face-"

Lelouch scoffed while making sure to avoid the baby carriage next to him as he slowly turned the chair towards the two women. "That's an understatement. You almost killed him."

"He groped me and he _deserved_ it," Kallen shrugged, not bothering to look at Lelouch this time.

"And thankfully I can't disagree with that."

"Anyway," Kallen continued on, "I got kicked out and Ms. Lamperouge let me join this company afterwards, so I've been with Lelouch since the beginning as many of his employees have. I look forward to getting to meet you, Cera."

"You can call me, C.C.," C.C. said right after she finished. A proud smirk crossed her face. "If you've dealt with the warlock the last four years, I'm sure I can survive here for my remaining time."

The red haired model rose an eyebrow at the words "remaining time", but ignored it, in favor of saying with a small smirk herself, "Your nickname is much nicer than the one I have for him."

"I figured bastard raised his ego, so I only kept it to something that seems to weirdly piss him off," C.C. smirked back.

"Does it? His full nickname is a psychopathic bastard. Put that in front of "bastard" and he'll be pissed off quicker than-

"Will you two shut up?!" Lelouch hissed, abruptly standing up from his chair.

Kallen rolled her eyes, turning around to Lelouch and glaring at him. "Not after you made me stop modeling for the duration of my pregnancy."

Lelouch ran his hands through his hair, pulling at in frustration. "You're so uncooperative. I never understood why we broke up before, but I can see why now."

The smirk on C.C.'s face widen. "So you're the girl he used to date?" she asked Kallen.

Kallen let out a groan of her own. "We only broke up because, as I stated before, he's a psychopathic bastard."

"I told you it was _insane_ to tell the public we were dating when you had so many anti-fans around at time."

"And I said it was less than the anti-fans you have and you're still kicking it, aren't you?" Kallen argued with him, crossing her arms under her chest and Lelouch gave her a flat look. "I'm not arguing about this," he muttered, dropping back down into his seat.

"Did you break his heart?" C.C. asked.

"He was moping around the company for a week and a half at most."

"I didn't _mope_ , Kallen."

"Yes, because not yelling at your employees, actually eating greasy food, and eating ice cream every lunch period _isn't_ moping," Kallen shot back. "You _hate_ ice cream, Lelouch."

Lelouch opened his mouth and then closed it like a fish, indicating he had nothing to say towards Kallen's argument. C.C. swore he was pouting slightly and let out a small chuckle. "I see there's someone who knows how to argue with him too."

"He never wins," Kallen smiled.

"You're both crazy," Lelouch muttered and placed his chin in his hand. "Alright, since you two are well acquainted, how about we actually get to what I called you here for?"

Kallen agreed with a small shrug before picking up the carriage next to Lelouch again and sitting down on the opposite side of the desk. C.C. took a place next to Lelouch's chair as he started. "So when do you want to pick back up modeling again? I need to know beforehand."

"I was thinking in about three months. That gives me time to get to know Takeshi and lose all of my baby weight. And despite the fact that I've already been out of work for the last five months, that's the better decision for me," Kallen explained to him.

Lelouch nodded, flipping through his papers. "Do you want a comeback with Takeshi?" he asked her.

"A comeback? Now?" Kallen questioned him.

"It could be now or after your three months. We can also introduce Takeshi to the world if you'd like. I noticed you haven't posted any pictures of him online yet," Lelouch explained to her. "And it _comes_ with a photoshoot, so it'll be a comeback photoshoot."

Kallen crossed her legs and folded her arms under her chest. "You're baiting me, aren't you?"

A smirk crossed Lelouch's face. "It's whatever you want to think it is."

"As much as I would like to model again, I think we'll do it after my three month break is up," Kallen smiled at her boss. "I think it's only right I give you an extended break when it comes to dealing with me."

"What break? I have C.C. to deal with instead," Lelouch chuckled.

C.C. grinned like a cheshire cat. "I'm glad you know how much work I am, warlock."

"Please give him hell for me, C.C," Kallen smirked at her, standing up and preparing to leave.

"No problem," the green haired woman smirked.

Kallen laughed before picking up Takeshi's carriage and bidding them both goodbye with a wave. After she exited the room, C.C. took a seat on the table and nudged Lelouch with her black heel. "Until Kallen comes back, you have the next three months with me and after that, only a month left."

Lelouch ignored that, not wanting to remember that him and C.C.'s contract was still technically only six months, so she could leave any time she wanted to if she liked. He felt like that night at his condo meant that C.C. would love to stay permanently, but he wasn't sure if her words were confirming that or if it was referring to their six month contract still.

He preferred to not ask instead and just enjoy their time together.

"It's better if I have one mischievous witch than an angry tiger all the time, don't you think?" Lelouch told her with a low chuckle. It felt more bitter than happy on his lips.

"If that's what you prefer," C.C. shrugged.

"Speaking of that, you have another show right at the end of your contract. It's…" Lelouch frowned deeply and muttered, "It's my father's bi-annual fashion show. I did all I could to not have you participate in it, but… My mother was insistent you be in it."

( _"I just think she'll do an amazing job in it,"_ Marianne told Lelouch one night over the phone.

"I am not entering her in in Charles' fashion show. You have lost your mind, mother."

" _Too bad I already entered her into it! Goodnight, sweetie!"_ Marianne cheered before hanging up the phone, deciding that she'll get chewed out by her son later.)

"That sounds like you didn't have much of a choice in that," C.C. said, observing his annoyed expression.

"Not much," he mumbled before saying louder, "Anya and Euphemia are also going to be in it. Kallen could, but you know the situation with that already, and I _do_ have some models who don't actually hate me."

"Surprisingly."

The raven haired man gave C.C. a flat, unimpressed look before going back to flip through his papers. "Anyway, they'll be enough of you to model my new line. It'll be a good farewell fashion show and give both of us some good publicity."

"Since when have you been about good publicity?" C.C. asked with a small smirk, poking his cheek. "I thought any publicity is good publicity for you. Or is the warlock learning that maybe he is a self-centered prick with a stick up his ass?"

"You're not funny, witch."

"I don't aim to be."

…

Later that day, Lelouch had Shirley plan a private lunch with both C.C. and Anya, so they could go over the things he went over with C.C. much earlier. He had to stop C.C. from ordering anything that was pizza like, causing the green haired model to kick his ankle under the table as he ordered for all three of them, which resulted in him letting out a yelp and scaring the waiter.

C.C. smirked and he glared at her. That didn't last long before a smirk of his own crossed his face and he turned back to the waiter. "I'll have avocado toast for the _nice_ , young lady next to me."

C.C.'s mischievous smirk dropped from her face as Lelouch let Anya order his own food and he then ordered his own. After the waiter left, C.C. placed a hand on his wrist and squeezed it tightly. "You know I hate avocado toast."

Lelouch smirked to himself as he looked down at his watch. "I know."

"Excuse me while I go throw up before I have to eat that sorry excuse for food again," C.C. gagged. She stood up and walked to the area of the restrooms, only looking back to immaturely stick out a tongue at Lelouch.

Immediately after she left, Anyay spoke up, which surprised Lelouch, but he was not expecting the next words that came out of her mouth. "How long have you liked her?" she asked in her quiet voice.

Lelouch almost choked on his mimosa, pulling it away from his mouth to ensure he didn't choke on it again later. He put his drink down _hard_ \- spilling some of his drink in the process - before saying, "Excuse me?"

"How long have you liked Miss C.C.?" the new pink haired model repeated to him, not bothering to look up from her phone she was typing on.

"I-I don't like C.C. I _don't_ fall in love with my models," Lelouch said, even though he himself knew it was a lie. A very non-convincing lie at that…

Anya's blank face didn't change when she looked back up at Lelouch. He shifted when she continued to stare at him for a full ten seconds before looking back down at her phone. "You _do_ like Miss C.C." she confirmed and Lelouch choked again, but on his own tongue this time.

Lelouch leaned forward and narrowed his eyes. "How did you figure that out? You've only been here for a couple of weeks."

"You stare at her."

Lelouch scrunched his nose. "Many people stare, Anya."

"And you always have a dazed look when staring at her."

"I daydream."

"You blush a lot when she has minimum clothing on."

"She's a model."

"But you aren't fazed when you look at your other models half-naked in the dressing room."

"What?"

"You like Miss C.C. then."

"I-"

"You have lots of excuses, too."

"Alright, I get it!" Lelouch growled in frustration.

Anya was more observant than he thought. She was the quiet type and that's what he liked about her, but she was the observant quiet type. Something was always more to the women he knew in his life and it was _very_ frustrating for him that he couldn't get away from those kind of women.

"Okay, so I like-"

"Love."

Lelouch groaned at being interrupted again. "I am not in love with her. I just like her."

She looked up from her phone again. "You said earlier that you don't fall in love with your models, hinting at the fact that you might be in love with Miss C.C. The correct word is love."

He was going to have to do something about the women in his life continuing to leave him speechless.

Lelouch decided he had no reply to that and instead told the younger adult through grit teeth, "Don't you dare mention this to _anyone_."

Anya nodded quietly before looking back down at her phone. Lelouch leaned back in his chair with a small sigh of relief right as Anya said, "You're not as intimidating as you think, Mr. Lelouch."

Well, he wasn't expecting that.

"Is that a compliment or…" Lelouch trailed off, narrowing his eyes at Anya, who once again was unfazed by his heated stare.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Anya said abruptly, getting up from her seat and pocketing her phone. "You should tell Miss C.C. how you feel. I think she'd be happy," Anya told him before heading to the bathroom.

Lelouch blinked in confusion as she walked off. "What does she mean C.C. will be happy?" he muttered.

"Happy about what?" a voice asked out of nowhere.

Lelouch jumped and turned to see that C.C. had returned to his side, her face fairly close to his. "Jesus, C.C.! Don't do that!" he yelped, holding a hand over his thumping heart.

"That's what you get for ordering me avocado toast again," she smirked in triumph, not at all caring that she almost gave Lelouch a mini heart attack. She picked up the drink Lelouch had ordered for her - the one thing she actually liked that he had ordered - and sipped at it. "How did you miss me walk pass Anya?"

At that question, Lelouch was sure his face had turned a very deep red; it was a very noticeable red at that. "I-I was thinking about something… That's all…" he mumbled.

He was thinking about how utterly _sad_ it was that his new model figured out he was in love with the woman right next to him and _deeply_ confused about how confessing would make her happy.

C.C. poked him in his cheek, deciding to ignore why his face had turned red - probably from his heart beating going up from frightening him - and said playfully, "Was it about me?"

She jumped back slightly when Lelouch had a sudden coughing fit, only moving towards him again to pat him on the back and hand him a glass of water. The green haired model would like to think that maybe she was spot on to cause him to have a coughing fit, but there would be no reason for him to react like that to her teasing…

He had never done so before.

Lelouch gulped down the glass of water before dumping his head onto the table. "C.C., do me a favor and don't talk for the next five minutes. Also," he pointed to her hand that was on his back, "Personal space."

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asked in concern.

Lelouch only stuck a hand up, telling her that he wanted her to stop talking.

C.C. only rolled her eyes at him. "Drama queen…" she muttered under her breath.

The moment of silence barely lasted five minutes before the waitress came back with their orders the same time Anya arrived back from the bathroom. Lelouch finally sat up, hair disheveled and eyes squinted, while C.C. made a face at the food in front of her. "Do I seriously have to eat this? You want me to fucking starve," she complained.

It was Lelouch's turn to roll his eyes. "Order something else if you want," he waved off, "But _no pizza_ , C.C." He had to add that after seeing her face light up. She would have taken advantage.

Her face fell. "I hate you."

"I know," he smirked.

"Of course," C.C. chuckled as she looked down at her menu. "I- Anya?"

The pink haired teen had snapped a picture of her and Lelouch. "You all looked nice," was the only thing she said before looking back down at her phone.

"She does that constantly," Lelouch told C.C. before narrowing his eyes at Anya. "Though, I did tell her to _stop_ doing that."

Anya ignored him in favor of saying, "Work."

"Right," Lelouch agreed with her, though it slightly irritated him that she ignored him in the process. "I wanted to tell you that you'll be in the upcoming fashion show that Charles zi Britannia will be holding three months from now."

"Your father?" Anya mumbled in question.

" _That bastard is not my father_ ," Lelouch insisted with a hiss.

"Then your not-father-father?"

"Anya, you're two seconds away from getting fired right on spot," Lelouch growled and the pink haired girl remained unfazed, just looking back down at her phone boredly.

C.C. let out a small sound of amusement. "We talked about that, Lelouch. Be nicer."

"I've been nice all damn d-" He paused in the middle of his sentence at the look C.C. gave him.

Damn her pretty face.

Damn her pretty eyes.

Damn her pretty legs.

And damn the fact that he fell in love with her.

"Fine," he muttered begrudgingly, "No one is getting fired. As I was saying before, though, the fashion show is in three months and you will be participating along with C.C., Euphemia, and a few other models I have to model my line."

"Other models?" Anya tilted her head.

"That's what I said," C.C. smirked, looking at Lelouch clench and unclench his hands continuously to make himself calm down. "Turns out he was desperate for me because his other ones refused to model for him at the time, or had other work. They got lucky."

"Fuck not firing anyone," Lelouch finally growled out. "Both of you are going to be fired if you don't stop _talking_ and let me explain the upcoming schedule you _should_ have if I don't fire the both of you right now."

"You threatened to fire us three times in one sentence. Impressive," C.C. continued on, knowing it only irritated the raven haired man next to her even more.

"C.C."

The mischievous smirk didn't leave her face. "Fine, fine."

"You all will be modeling my line at Charles zi Britannia's upcoming fashion show three months from now, so we have a lot of work to do until then. Please be cooperative because my patience is thinning," Lelouch finally finished. "Any questions?"

C.C. raised her hand.

His eye twitched in annoyance. " _What_?"

"Do I get pizza as well the day of my farewell?" she asked, but this time she asked with a genuine smile. No mischievousness intended.

Though he'd rather not think about the fact that C.C. was leaving once their contract ended, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle. "Yes, you can, C.C."

 _*SHUTTER*_

Anya put down her phone and mumbled a, "You smiled," to Lelouch only.

* * *

C.C. never let anyone else camp out at her house before, but Milly had insisted on crashing the model's house that weekend, so she invited Euphemia and Anya as so she wouldn't be the only one to suffer from Milly's endless energy - as much as she loved the makeup artist.

"You should become a social media model too," Milly suggested to her that night as she flopped down on the couch, totally disregarding Euphemia and lying her legs over her lap. The younger girl only sighed as she continued to pick from the pizza on her plate.

"Does Lelouch know you ordered pizza?" Euphemia asked, knowing that neither them _nor_ Anya should be having greasy and bready food without her older brother's permission.

"Does he?" C.C. questioned back.

"That's his credit card on the table, C.C.," the twenty-three year old pink model pointed out with a small chuckle.

"He'll live. I used my Pizza Hut account anyway, so he'll only know if he checks his card transactions," she smirked as she was about to bite into her pizza, but stopped after remembering to answer Milly's question. "Also, Milly. I'm already an _actual model_. Why would I need to have be a social media one?"

The blond grinned. "To get more clout. If I do your makeup and Rivalz styles you, that's plenty of it for me and maybe a _tad_ bit for him." She squinted her thumb and forefinger together to emphasize her last part.

"I already have enough attention and clout with Lelouch's name just being next to mine in the media and my face being plastered everywhere since I'm the favorite newbie," C.C. scoffed as she put down her pizza to wipe her hands.

Euphemia chuckled. "I remember being a newbie back when I first started. Of course, that was back when I was ten years old and I worked for father back then. I was basically Britannia's IT GIRL. I took a break to focus on high school and got back into modeling when I turned 18…" she explained with a small smile. "Then… I decided to work for Lelouch instead when I came back from my break. Father wasn't happy."

"So you were also one of his first models?" C.C. asked her in curiosity. As far as she knew, only most of his employees within the company and Kallen were with Lelouch when he began.

"Yes. I've always supported Lelouch in the things he does, but he doesn't get along with our father very well, so a lot of his decisions are based off things going against father." She made a slight face at her next words. "Father made it difficult for Lelouch to start up his business simply because he knew Lelouch would be strong competition. His designs are amazing, so father thinks that if any of us work for Lelouch, we're against him."

"He only keeps Lelouch close because he'll know one day that he'll eventually be of use to him," Euphemia continued on. "Lelouch is just as stubborn as his mother, though, so we won't budge no matter what father does."

Milly rolled her eyes from the side as she grabbed a piece of pizza and sat up to eat it. "And that causes his bad attitude to effect the rest of us unfortunately," she huffed. "But that's also just Lelouch. He's just an asshole."

Euphemia pouted. "He didn't always have a bad attitude. He's just-"

"An asshole," C.C. finished for her and Milly snorted. The quietest chuckle also escaped Anya's lips.

"When you spend most of your time with him, of course you know that the best," Milly said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"I don't spend most of my time with Lelouch," C.C. said, but even she knew that was a lie as the words rolled off her tongue.

She was one of Lelouch's models, so it wasn't surprising that she was always at his side, but when she wasn't doing photoshoots, commercials, or magazine interviews - she was always with him. There were many days where he'd stay in his office working on designs and usually, she'd be seated on the table, feet tucked under her, and adding in her opinion or two on the designs if she wasn't doing her own thing (like secretly ordering pizza to be delivered to her home later on). If not at her own home, she was at his condo mostly and both of them had gotten so used to the pattern of her staying over at his place after work, she had half of her things at his house; plus, Lelouch had given her her own room. And on most days like those, if they arrived home early enough, Lelouch would cook dinner for the both for them to enjoy together.

On rare occasions, they'd go out together just for the hell of it. He would usually let her pick anywhere she wanted to go unless there was somewhere he wanted to go specifically (he had dragged her to this bookstore once and she was sure if Lelouch hadn't been there for her to tease as he geeked out over books that she would've died from boredom). They had visited restaurants, parks, and even - begrudgingly for Lelouch - a pet shop downtown where she adopted a cat (Well, it was also Lelouch's, but she picked it out and named it, so it was _hers_ ).

Lelouch was her friend.

It was normal for friends to always constantly spend time with one another.

Was it not?

Milly clicked her tongue. "Don't lie, C.C. You're with him inside and outside of work."

She was.

"I know that, but… He's my friend."

"Even Suzaku doesn't hang around Lelouch the way you do and Suzaku's his best friend," Euphemia added.

C.C. shook her head. "He's my friend," she repeated.

"See, that's where you're wrong," Milly smirked, the glint in her eye turning from mischievous to full on evil. "Lelouch isn't just a friend."

The green haired model narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "What do you mean?"

"Lelouch is an asshole; his family and friends know it, the media knows it, the whole entire world knows it, but you," Milly pointed a finger to C.C.'s face. "He started out as an asshole to you just like the rest of us, but he's become… Softer since he met you."

"He hasn't."

C.C. also knew that was a lie rolling off her tongue again.

Marianne had told her over the last three months of the many bad habits and terrible things Lelouch would do including his constant firing of employees, kicking his models out of his company, and just being a dick to anyone who he thought deserved such.

"Okay, Lelouch is known for firing his employees constantly, right?" Milly started. "He fires about eight employees every week on average usually. How many employees has he fired since he your first runway?"

"... I'm not answering that," C.C. told Milly firmly.

The makeup artist smirked widely. "You don't have to because I already know." She held up seven fingers. "Lelouch has only fired seven employees in the last two months, C.C. _Seven_."

"That's way less than his firing almost thirty employees every month," Euphemia agreed. "If he's not firing anyone, he's making them work all day and night. Amaya works in the fabrics department and she cried when Lelouch let her have a two hour break."

"Ichijiku sprained her ankle and Lelouch carried her to the infirmary instead of making her hop there herself," Milly added in. "He fired someone for spraining their ankle once. I had to help the poor girl find a new job… You don't even have your own personal manager or assistant yet!"

"Maybe he's just a changed person? I told him to be nice," she shrugged. "That's all it was."

Milly gasped, Euphemia choked on the ginger ale she was drinking, and even Anya had to look up from her phone with her eyes a little wider than normal.

"Lelouch never takes advice from _anyone_ ," Milly whispered.

"Not even me, or Nunnally, or Suzaku, and we're his _family_ ," Euphemia mumbled herself.

"He listens to you," they said in union.

"You're all thinking about this too much. The warlock just wants-" She snapped her mouth closed after realizing what she just said. She never called Lelouch "warlock" outside of them being by themselves and the only said it once around Kallen, but Milly and Euphemia…

"She calls him warlock!" Milly teased.

C.C. tried to ignore the blush rising up on her face. She coughed and said, "I only call him that because he refuses to call me a bitch, so he uses witch."

"... So he gave you a nickname?" Milly concluded.

"No, it's an insult."

"Sounds like a nickname to me."

"I will kick you and Euphemia both out of my house right now if you don't stop talking nonsense," C.C. threatened as she stood up to go to the kitchen. The place where none of her friends were.

Milly shrugged, not at all being fazed by the threat. "I'm just teasing, but you don't find it weird that Lelouch not only doesn't treat you as he does everyone else, but has actively been taking your advice when he listens to no one but his angel and devil?"

"It's Lelouch."

"Or it might be you."

"What does that fucking mean?" C.C. hissed.

"It means that-"

"I want ice cream," Anya interrupted abruptly.

Milly shot a glare at the younger woman, knowing exactly what she was doing, but decided that she had enough for tonight anyway. "You could've mentioned that earlier, Anya."

"You talk too much."

"Now that I do," Milly agreed, even if she was upset at the said girl.

C.C. chuckled at the two and walked into the kitchen to retrieve Anya her ice cream.

Milly's words didn't mean thing. It was just Milly being Milly along with dragging Euphemia into her antics. She grew up quite lonely. She only had a few friends back in school that she never even kept in contact with, but never in her time alive did she think she'd end up being one of the models of Lelouch Lamperouge - the fashion designer known infamously for being an asshole - or that he'd up being her friend.

He was just her friend.

That's all there was to it.

…

" _Or it might be you."_

C.C. didn't sleep a wink all weekend after those words. Not only was she falling asleep while being measured by Naomi, but there were bags under her eyes and Lelouch was going to kill her for letting that happen. The last thing she needed was Lelouch fussing at her early in the morning because she had been overthinking something Milly had said to her Friday night.

Right at that moment, Lelouch had arrived in all his annoying glory wearing black dress pants, a v-neck black shirt, and a gray suit jacket with the sleeves rolled up. He actually greeted the other women in the room before going over to where Mutsuki was. She blushed, remembering that she only had a bra on and the pants she had come in earlier as Naomi measured her.

" _Or it might be you."_

"Fuck Milly," she muttered under breath, low enough for only her ears to hear.

She looked over again to see Lelouch had playfully flicked Ayame in the head and the girl only laughed instead of looking like she was on the verge of tears as usual when Lelouch was around. The gesture made her smile, but then she frowned deeply, now noticing what Milly and Euphemia had been pointing out.

"Mr. Lamperouge has been a lot kinder lately," Naomi told her with a smile as she wrapped the measuring tape around C.C.'s waist. The words from her mouth caught C.C.'s attention. "I mean, he's never been exactly a bad person, but he has always had a bad attitude and it scares all of us."

C.C. only hummed in response.

"I think something has made him happy. He's rarely like that and it's only when he's happy," Naomi said. "When he had his first fashion show, he bought the whole staff dinner that night, but this is different. He's being _nice_. He still yells at us of course, but he's gone down on the way he treats us, and any form of kindness from Lelouch is abnormal."

This made C.C. think back to that night between her and Lelouch.

" _And you have to be nicer to your models all together. Not just me."_

" _Maybe when they stop acting like the head bitches in charge," Lelouch had scoffed._

" _Lelouch."_

 _He sighed, looking at her with a tired smile - one that she hadn't noticed was genuine and dazed before. "I'll… I'll try," he agreed._

" _Growth," she had muttered genuinely despite Lelouch having pushed her in the ribs. "I'm right and you know it."_

" _Maybe."_

Remembering the smile on his face, how they had talked for the rest of the night, how she was the first one to lean on his shoulder as they talked, how Lelouch's hand had lightly found itself on top of hers, and how the wine had taken an affect on them both before they fell asleep in each other's arms with their legs entangled made her face turn a deep red and her heart do that weird thumping thing again.

"C.C."

Her head snapped to the side to find Lelouch standing there with a cup of coffee in his hand and an twitching eyebrow. She hadn't even noticed Naomi was finished measuring her. "Your eyes…"

She rolled her eyes, completely disregarding her thoughts and smirking slightly at the man in front of her. "You like it? It's a new look."

"You have a photoshoot today and you have _bags_ under your eyes?" he questioned her through grit teeth.

This morning was just starting off just swell.

"You care more about the bags under my eyes than my own well being?" C.C. gasped in mock disappointment.

"Stop being a smartass, C.C. I'm the one-" He gestured to the bags under her eyes, "-That was to fix that before this afternoon."

"And I'm the one with the bags under my eyes because I didn't get a wink of sleep all weekend," she replied.

"And why is that?" Lelouch hissed.

C.C. could not tell Lelouch she couldn't sleep because she had been up all night everyday of the week thinking about something Milly had said about him.

"I had a sleepover with the other girls this weekend," she lied instead.

"Euphemia, Anya, and Milly look fine," Lelouch said.

"Well, it must be magic because I look like shit," C.C. grumbled while crossing her arms under her chest. She had completely forgotten she was just in a bra, not noticing how the action had pushed her breast up.

Lelouch coughed suddenly, looking down at his black shoes instead and saying, "I'll ask Milly if she has anything to deal with it."

His action made her realize why he had looked away and the smirk that had been present earlier reappeared. "Ah, is the sight of my cleavage another thing that turns you on?"

"C.C., every part of your body does not turn me on."

"So something on my body does then?"

"What?"

"You said not every part, which means some part must turn you on."

" _C.C._ "

"Am I wrong?"

"Very."

"That hurts me."

"Shut up, you damn witch," he growled.

C.C. smirked in triumph. "I'll think about it."

"Put a shirt on, so we can head out to the sunflower field you'll be having your photoshoot at," Lelouch demanded in annoyance.

The model nodded silently, grabbing her shirt from of the table and placing it back on. When she was stuck in her own thoughts, it was better to mess with Lelouch to entertain herself rather than be a victim of overthinking. She hated overthinking.

Especially if it pertained to her friend she had.

…

On their way to the photoshoot, C.C. asked Lelouch a question that had been on her mind since Milly pointed it out to her. Clearing her throat, she asked in the most neutral voice she could muster, "Lelouch, why haven't you given me my own manager or assistant yet?"

She saw his hands tighten on the wheel and she frowned, wondering what would cause a reaction like that. He didn't answer her right away. Two minutes had passed at the most before he answered, "I always try to make it to my beginner models' schedules, so they can get use to the environment before I leave them on their own. I'm doing the same with you."

"I've been a model for three months already, Lelouch. I'm use to way things are now, you know," she replied. She knew the topic wasn't that deep, but Milly really kept making her questions things. "Your focus is Anya now. She's very introverted, so I think it'd do well if you were with her more."

"I know," Lelouch muttered. "I just… I haven't picked out the right assistant for you yet. I don't want to assign just anyone to you. You're the best wom- I mean, model I've had in years."

"Lelouch, I'm not that good at what I do. I was just a last minute desperate chance," C.C. said, though she knew the words falling from her mouth were wrong.

Lelouch stopped at the spotlight and looked over at C.C., a frown turning up on his lips. "What do you mean you're "not that good"? C.C., if you were useless and untalented, I would've kept your contract at a month instead of six months."

She chuckled lowly. "Would you really have?"

"I would've have thrown you out of the company if you were," he shrugged, turning back around and hitting the accelerator to move forward again. "You're one of my top models and the public loves you. That speaks for itself. Not what you think."

"Or because they're scared of you," C.C. joked.

"They don't force themselves to love you because of me. They love you because they love you. It's easy to do so," Lelouch answered truthfully to her joke. A small smile was etched on his face.

That statement made C.C.'s cheeks turn a bright pink.

It was flattery she felt.

Just flattery.

There was nothing else to his words.

"You still haven't answered my question," she coughed, changing the subject.

Lelouch's form loosened from the stiffness it had gained earlier. "If that's really want you want, I'll do that and stop overseeing you," he sighed. "But I'm not going to hire just anyone for you."

"Ah, are you worried about my well being in the fashion world?" she joked once again.

"... Yes."

" _Lelouch_."

"You asked."

"Why are you being so truthful and serious with me today?" C.C. huffed and flicked Lelouch in the head. "Go back to mean old Lelouch who likes to yell at everyone."

"Didn't you ask me to be nice?" he smirked.

"I didn't ask for you to be this nice, warlock."

"Going back on your request?"

"It was a request you didn't have to comply to."

"... Maybe."

"Oh, look, we're here," C.C. said, changing the subject and deciding to ignore the fact that Lelouch was being weird today.

Her thoughts were already full of things she'd rather not think about.

Lelouch was the last thing she needed to add to her thoughts.

…

Lelouch was still, _unfortunately_ , the only thing on her mind after her photoshoot.

When they arrived back at his condo, the man had been strangely quiet as he had been all day. She hadn't bothered to ask him since she was busy her whole photoshoot, only having had three breaks during the shoot, and even then, Lelouch only sat observing her quietly.

She even shot him a rare smile during the shoot and he had only replied with the smallest of smiles before looking down at some papers - most likely portfolios - down in his lap. Needless to say, the gesture annoyed her for the oddest reason and she couldn't quite put her finger on it why it did.

"Lelouch," she started, poking him in the cheek while he looked at the menu from the greek restaurant they were going to order at, "Can I have pizza tonight?"

He opened his mouth, obviously ready to shoot her down quickly and firmly, but seemed he changed his mind at the last minute because all he muttered was a small, "No." before picking up his phone to order for her.

This time she poked him in his thigh with her toe from her seat on top of the counter. "Just no?"

"You already know my answer, C.C.," he groaned, putting the phone to his ear. "What more do I have to say?"

Well, that was more than she had gotten out of him all day besides their car ride.

"Maybe more than just a simple "no" since you've been ignoring me since my photoshoot this afternoon," C.C. said after he hung up with the food place and decided she wasn't going to skirt around what she had been wondering for the last few hours. "Is there something wrong, Lelouch? You've been acting weird."

He rose an eyebrow at her. "I haven't been acting weird…"

"When I haven't heard your loud mouth all day, something is wrong. Not to mention you've been distant," C.C. explained, sounding more fed up than she intended to.

"Maybe I just need to think instead of being around for your damn entertainment all day."

That came out than C.C. expected and she narrowed her eyes at her raven haired boss. "You can think without ignoring me."

An unimpressed look crossed Lelouch's face. "Please, C.C. You're starting to sound like my other models."

She crossed her arms under her chest. "I'm sure when we first met that I explained I was no different from the models that have had to deal with your foolery all these years."

"God, where are we even going with this?" Lelouch dragged a hand down his face tiredly. "I've just been thinking C.C. and there's nothing more to it. I can't tell you anything else."

"But you're not telling me something and it's bothering you. You couldn't even tell me straight out why you haven't given me a manager yet."

"I already told you."

"I'm not dumb, Lelouch." She jumped off the counter and walked over to him. "I've been with you all day and twenty-four/seven since you found me off the street. Just a random, poor girl who has no experience in modeling. I _know_ you. Hell, I even have my own closet and bedroom in your house and you can't tell me why you've been acting so weird today?"

"Because it's none of your business!" Lelouch snapped at her.

The green haired woman narrowed her eyes even more and took a step back. "Then, it's none of my business, I guess," she hissed, turning on her heel and walking out of the kitchen.

"Wait- Ugh, C.C., wait," Lelouch called after her, but she decided she was tired of him. His bad attitude was one thing, but keeping himself distant for no reason was another.

His footsteps continued after her until she had gotten to her room upstairs and had slammed the door, stopping Lelouch in his tracks. He knocked on the door and called, "C.C., open the door. I'm- God damn it!" he cursed.

"Is it really that hard for you to apologize?" C.C. asked through the door. "I knew you were an asshole, but-"

"Can you just shut the hell up for five minutes, witch?! You aren't helping!"

And just like that, C.C. closed her mouth, refusing to say anything to him. She was sure more than five minutes of silence had passed - more so about twenty-five minutes - and she never heard Lelouch move from in front of her door. She just heard silent walking back and forth, and the rare bout of low curses.

Just as she decided that she was going to go to bed if Lelouch wasn't going to say anything, a knock was heard on her door. She stood up and went to the door, but didn't open it. Instead, she said through the door, "Now do you have something to say?"

She heard him let out a sigh between frustration and annoyance. "C.C.," he started softly, "You know you've been my model for the last three months, right? You've been nothing but a huge help to me since then…"

"We made that clear about two months ago."

She couldn't help it.

"I know, but besides being a model, I've kept you next to me as a close friend. I thought you would just be another throw away model for me because our deal was made with the intentions of money and proving to the world that I could keep a model for more than a month. Any publicity is good publicity, is it not?" He chuckled at that and admittedly, a small smile crossed her face. "But… Turns out you were none of that. You weren't even that when I ended up picking you out of any other actual professional model. You've worked hard and endlessly for me, but you've also been some sort of an unusual friend for me. At least… That's what I thought you were to me."

Weirdly, C.C.'s heart started to thump in her chest at that last sentence.

She didn't like it.

Where was he going with this?

Lelouch was being weird.

 _Again_.

She heard a small thump outside of her, indicating that Lelouch had leaned his head against her door. "I realized after your first interview that maybe you weren't just a friend to me because…" he mumbled low enough for her to just hear.

"Because what?" she whispered, though she was sure he couldn't hear her.

It felt like an eternity before Lelouch finished his sentence, and she was not expecting the next words that had come from his mouth.

"Because I'm in love with you."

C.C. was sure she didn't hear anything else Lelouch said after that - did he say anything else after that? - because her brain had shut down immediately.

 ***Insert my evil laugh***

 **Oh, I love cliffhangers so much (not really). This chapter wasn't even supposed to end like this, but like I had explained earlier, I had to split it into two chapters, so now you all have to wait in pain for the next update. How fun is that going to be? None at all. I already know. So...**

 **Read and Review please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**And I'm back with chapter 5 of A Fashion Disaster! I told you I'd get a second update in this month! I actually had the time. I feel better about this chapter than last since it was really choppy.**

 **Also, thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows from everyone! I really like detailed reviews and reviews period. They make me happy and motivate me so much. :)**

 **Anyway, this chapter is more filler than anything and next chapter is the last chapter and I don't really know how long that's gonna be because depending on how long it is, I'll either include the epilogue in that chapter or put it in it's own short chapter. Plus, like a lot, this chapter is edited as best as I could do it.**

 **Now that's it and I should let you all read because I really am just rambling now.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 5**

Lelouch tiredly swirled his coffee around with a spoon, pretty sure it had gone cold by now since stirring it around was the only thing he had been doing for the last hours. He had designs to work on, more portfolios to looks through, and even people he would really _love_ to yell at right about now, but no. Here he was losing his mind over a woman.

How had he sunk so low?

A loud knock interrupted his loud, confused, running thoughts and before he could even find the motive to answer, "Come in," the person at the door had already let themselves into his office. It was his mother and the tall woman entered the room dressed in a dark blue blouse, white pencil skirt, and shoes to match with her top. A huge smile was on her face and Lelouch groaned loudly.

That meant she was in a good mood.

It probably had something to do with his bastard father.

Noticing his loud groan, Marianne took a closer look at her oldest child and frowned deeply. She walked over to his desk and gently grabbed his face in her hands to observe it even more closely. "Lelouch, you look like hell," Marianne stated. He had bags under his eyes and his hair was completely disheveled. "You never let yourself look like hell."

Her observance caused her to look at his outfit too for the day and she shuddered. He had on red with stripes. Not only did her son _hate_ wearing the color red, but he had on stripes with it. _Stripes_. "Lelouch, did you just pick out random items from your closet this morning? Please tell me you didn't."

"... Yes."

Marianne almost had an heart attack. Never in her son's twenty-six years of life had she seen him son wear something so… So absolutely abysmal. "You do really look like hell now."

"I _am_ going through hell, Mother."

"Hades is going to kick you out because you look too miserable and pitiful for even the bottoms of hell," the raven haired model said with a shake of her head.

"Very funny, Mother," Lelouch muttered with a roll of his eyes.

Marianne placed her hands on her hips and rose an eyebrow at her son, now knowing something was definitely wrong with him. He wasn't being Lelouch. This was an imposter and she was going to get to the bottom of it. "What the hell is going on, Lelouch? And don't tell me nothing is wrong with you. I've known you for the last twenty-six years of my life and I'm no fool."

"Mother, you had me when you were nineteen with a bastard fifteen years older than you. Do you want to know how much of a fool I think you are actually?" Lelouch questioned her with his own eyebrow rose.

" _Lelouch_."

"Mother-"

At that moment, something clicked off in Marianne's head. She looked around the room before turning back to Lelouch with a look of pure confusion. "Where's C.C.?" she asked, noticing the young model was nowhere to be found.

She noticed Lelouch physically stiffen at the sound of the model's name and Marianne let out the softest of an "oh." Her son's mood was related to C.C. It didn't surprise since she never saw them apart from one another, but now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen them together in two weeks. Something was definitely going on.

"She went to China to participate in a fashion show and film some new cfs," he told her, shoulders slumping. "I didn't go because she asked for a personal manager now that she's use to how the fashion world works. She'll be gone for the rest of the week."

Marianne leaned against the desk and a small smile crossed her face. "Is it too quiet for you?" she asked.

One thing she knew about Lelouch was that as much as he acted as if he hated everyone, the sound of noise did calm him because he knew that there were people around. He was aware that despite his attitude, there was people around him who cared for him. C.C. had become apart of that in such a short while and it amazed her. It was almost as short as he had become friends with Suzaku.

"That's not it," Lelouch waved off.

"But it's something about C.C., is it not?"

"No…"

"Lelouch, tell me."

"Mother, it isn't-"

"No one would make you act this out of touch or dress this badly. Not even Suzaku," she chuckled, remembering the time the two boys had a huge fight because of differences that resulted in them not talking to each other for months. "So what happened? We found the answer to your hell, didn't we?"

She saw his face turn slightly red and that just made the woman even more curious.

Lelouch dropped his head on the table and let out a long sigh - it was apart of his dramatics - and muttered, "I confessed to her…"

Marianne's face dropped quickly. "You did what?"

He brought his head back up to look at her and oh… He looked so pitiful that it was sad.

"I… confessed to C.C.," he admitted.

Marianne made some weird motions with her hands while asking, "Confessed to C.C. about what exactly?"

Lelouch gave his mother a tired glare. "That I fell in love with her, Mother. What else?"

"Lelouch, if she rejected you-" Marianne started.

"She didn't reject me," Lelouch hissed. "At least, I don't think so…"

* * *

" _Because I'm in love with you," Lelouch confessed quietly from his side of the door._

 _Lelouch balled his fist tightly and squeezed his eyes didn't want to say it, but he had made her angry and he didn't want to see C.C. upset. If he had left her alone, it would just make the tension between them worse than it was in the kitchen, but who was he kidding? This was going to make everything worst._

 _She had insisted on knowing what was wrong and she was right. She did know him and there no point of him being a jerk to her because he tried to put the feelings he had gained for her aside for the last three months. It had all just caught up with him so much that it had brought him down._

 _The silence from the other side of the door had passed on for five minutes before he heard C.C. stutter out a reply. "R-R-Repeat th-that?" she asked in the highest, unsure voice he had ever heard from her and it made him chuckle to himself in amusement._

 _But her telling him to repeat it had made his own face turn red. He had sat outside the for twenty-five minutes trying to decide whether he was going to tell her or not and now she asked him to repeat those words again. Shaking his head, he repeated in a small voice, "I'm in love with you, C.C., and I have been for the last two months."_

 _He heard her kick her feet against the door loudly, causing him to move away from the door in concern for his own safety. He heard more shuffling, raising an eyebrow in confusion from the noise until he heard - what he assumed - her lean back against the door loudly._

" _W-Why would you be in love w-with me?" C.C. asked him and the stutter in her voice made Lelouch chuckle again._

 _She was cute._

" _I said it in the car earlier."_

" _You didn't- Oh…"_

" _Because you're the best woman I've ever met, C.C. You were pulled into working with me because I was a desperate asshole, yet along the way, I found myself taking a liking to you. I thought it was just because I was becoming use to you being around, but I realized that it was more than that. You're not only annoying, competitive, and challenging, but you're smart, kind, sweet, and honestly, I don't think I've ever met anyone like me," Lelouch told her through the door, the smile on his face growing bigger as he went on._

" _I'm not an a-asshole," he heard her mutter in response._

" _You don't need to be."_

" _Lelouch, I-"_

 _Even though he should've given her a chance to reply to his confession, he quickly cut her off and said, "C.C., you don't have to reply right now. You can… You can do it when you feel ready to answer."_

 _He wasn't ready to hear her answer right now._

" _... Why?"_

" _Because the last thing I want to do is force you to give me an answer."_

" _I'll… I'll think about it," she told him and Lelouch realized that the stutter had finally left her voice. Now she was just speaking to him quietly through the door._

" _Thank you…"_

" _Lelouch?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _Do you really mean it when you said you love me?"_

" _Always," he told her with surety._

 _Lelouch didn't know what happened because he jumped back away from the door again when he heard a loud thump and crash._

* * *

"She said she was going to think about it, so why it bothering you so much?" Marianne asked her son.

"Because it's been two weeks and it's driving me insane. Not to mention that we barely saw one another before she took off on a plane to China," Lelouch groaned.

"You mean you threw her on a plane to China."

"It was literally apart of her upcoming schedule. It just happened to coincide with this incident," Lelouch grumbled.

He wasn't that much of a coward that he'd throw the woman he loved off on a plane just to avoid her after confessing to her.

That's something his bastard father would do.

Marianne let out another sigh, crossed her arms under her chest and looked at Lelouch with a sympathetic look. "Lelouch, don't lose your mind over it. She said she would answer when she's ready and torturing yourself over the thought of what her answer might be won't do you any good. After all, I think some time apart while she thinks about it is a good thing. You can both prepare yourselves."

Lelouch grumbled something under his breath, which Marianne took it as him hesitantly agreeing with her. She pat him on the head and ruffled his hair like she use to do when her son was very young. It surprised her that when Lelouch was first born that she didn't particularly want anything to do with him - She had been nineteen for God's sake. She was going to ship him off to her parents and call it day, but they had already been angry with her, so she hired a nanny.

Lelouch had only been a couple of weeks old, but she didn't care how the nanny took care of him as long as he was out of her hands. He wasn't a fussy baby, but the nanny would sometimes constantly recommend that she try to bond with Lelouch, though, why bond with a baby she knew she wasn't going to come to love any time soon when she had all this fame she had worked for?

Of course, that's what she had thought until one day when he was about four months old, Lelouch got terribly sick. She brushed it off, thinking it was just one of those normal colds until she had gotten a call from the nanny that Lelouch kept crying, throwing up his milk, and he was hotter than normal. She had rushed home from the fashion show she was originally supposed to participate in and drove to the nearest hospital.

She didn't know what was wrong with him and had freaked out the whole time he was in the emergency room. Her behavior was far from the usual calm and collected pose she held. The minute the doctor said that he was okay, she had broken down in tears, crying to herself that she was a terrible mother. The female doctor had comforted her and told her that if she wanted to do better, that she recommended Marianne start breastfeeding. It would help her bond with him more.

So, after that, Marianne took a hiatus from modeling and decided she was going to take care of Lelouch properly and on her own. She would take him anywhere and everywhere with him and as time went on, she came to love him even more than anything.

She had always loved him.

She was just scared.

The raven haired model removed her hand from her son's hair (well, he knocked it off) and smiled at him instead. "I don't know what you've been doing all morning, but how about we go take a break and get your mind off things? We can go visit that fabric store you like so much and then go out for lunch."

Lelouch let out a hesitant, "Fine," and slowly stood up, but stopped in his motion when his mother cleared her throat loudly. " _Yes_ , Mother?"

She pointed a finger up and down his outfit, making a disgusted face. "Please go change your outfit first, dear."

Lelouch looked down at it and cringed himself. "That's… That's probably a good idea," he grumbled.

…

"Miss C.C.?" the blue haired woman, Cecile, called out to the model who was scrolling through her phone with a disgruntled look upon her face. The woman hadn't touched her food since they arrived. She had only been typing away - quite angrily - on her phone. "We need to head out to the set in fifteen minutes. You should eat."

"I will," she muttered, even though her noodles and dumplings had almost gone cold.

Cecile rose an eyebrow at her and asked, "Who have you been texting so much? You've only been firing away from your phone since this morning."

"My friends," she muttered once again.

Cecile nodded and leaned back in her chair, not bothering to ask the model anymore questions. Ever since Lelouch had assigned him to C.C. - with a little convincing because he once assigned her to three models in the span of two weeks and fired each and everyone of them and she was not happy about that - two weeks ago, the model had been between a fair mix of disgruntled and quiet. She would have small talk with Cecile here and there, but that would be the gist of it. She put it off as the model having not yet gotten use to being around her yet, but she felt there was much more to the model's mood than her just being uncomfortable.

"Miss C.C.?" Cecile called again.

"Yes?"

"I know you haven't known me for long, but what has you so down?" the woman asked.

"'I'm not upset," she muttered.

Cecile chuckled lightly. "Miss C.C., I am a thirty-three year old woman and I've worked with many other young adults, teenagers, and children before. It's not hard to tell that you're upset about something _or_ someone."

At the words "someone", C.C.'s face had turned slightly red and Cecile smiled to herself.

Bingo.

"I'm not upset. I've just been thinking about some things,"C.C. answered her in a mumble again. "It's nothing to worry about."

"Is it nothing to worry about when even you don't care enough to listen to me about the rest of your schedule for today?" Cecile asked.

C.C.'s face visibly changed and she bowed her head slightly in apology, frowning at the other woman in front of her. "I'm sorry, Cecile. I didn't mean to ignore you."

The blue haired woman's smile didn't falter. "You don't have to apologize for it. I know your thoughts are preoccupied thinking about a certain man… Or woman." She added the last part, not one to assume anything about anyone.

"How-"

"Once again, I've lived a little longer than you have, Miss C.C. I know things."

C.C. smiled at her word's slightly, finding an odd comfort within the woman. She had only known her for two weeks, but Cecile was shown to be very helpful in all areas; whether it came to informing her of her schedule, dragging her out of bed, or making sure her diet was free of pizza unless she was given permission by Lelouch (as much as that disgruntled her).

"You don't want to hear about my irrelevant pro-" She was cut off by the firm look Cecile had cast her and she cleared her throat with the smallest blush crossing her face. It was a bit weird to tell someone she had only known a few days about her love - was it love? - troubles, but it made her the most comfortable to tell someone who didn't know her as well. "Well… You see, before I left, just right after Lelouch hired you as my manager, this… This man confessed to me his feelings."

"Ah, this man is in love with you?"

C.C. shook her head slowly, leaning forward and choosing to finally touch her bowl of noodles - except she decided to play around with them rather than eat them. "Yes, apparently…" The look on her face changed to doubt, telling Cecile that the girl wasn't sure if the said man's words were true. "But the thing is, he told me that I didn't have to answer right away, and… I haven't known how to feel since then."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... he's my friend - He's one of the only friends I've ever had my whole life and we're always with one another, but I never thought - It never crossed my mind that he could be in love with me," C.C. explained in a voice that Cecile noticed was a little high. "We've only known each for a short almost four months and it's quite overwhelming because I don't know how he fell for someone like me."

"What are you exactly, Miss C.C.?" Cecile could hear from her tone that the other woman in front of her didn't think much of herself, especially the way she kept hinting that she couldn't understand why this mystery man liked her so much. "And what is this man like?"

"He said I was the best w-woman he had ever met and that it was the first time he met anyone like him." C.C. balled her fist and blew a piece of loose hair out of her face; her eyes furrowed in frustration. "He's nothing but a selfish, annoying, egoistic bastard who finds pride in people hating him, but… He's also sweet in the strangest way and despite his attitude, he cares about the people around him, and he tries to better himself even if it's difficult for him."

A knowing smile crossed Cecile's face. "Lelouch sounds like an interesting man to be involved with."

"I revealed myself, didn't I?" C.C. mumbled and Cecile nodded in agreement.

"The only other man I know that sounds exactly like Lelouch is his older brother, Schneizel, but I've assumed you haven't met any of his older siblings yet," the blue haired woman chuckled.

"I met Cornelia, but that was through Euphemia," C.C. told her. "She's just as rash and angry as he is, but shows it in a more reserved way."

"So," Cecile spoke up, going back to the original conversation, "Do you think you feel the same way as Lelouch?"

"I… I don't know," C.C. admitted truthfully. "I've been thinking about it, but our whole relationship would change, wouldn't it? We've only been boss and employee and somehow friends. I would cause trouble if he was in a relationship with me. I'm only good for modeling."

"But Lelouch doesn't feel that way about you. Back when Lelouch was formerly dating Kallen, he wanted nothing but the best for either of him. You're aware that they broke up because he refused to reveal their relationship simply because Kallen was getting a lot of hate then. He cares, and I'm sure Lelouch cares about you more than you keep telling yourself, even if he doesn't show it… In the best of ways sometimes," Cecile explained. "If he loves you, I know he means it no matter what changes."

C.C. didn't answer and thought about the words Cecile had just told her. Did she love Lelouch? Was that why she was worried about what Lelouch thought of her instead? Was that why she found herself thinking about him even when she didn't want to? Was this why she denied it when Euphemia and Milly pointed out that Lelouch acted different around her?

Her heart thumped around him, but her and Lelouch were always in close proximity with one another… It wasn't the close proximity particularly. It was the smallest things - his smile, his touch, and how he frustratingly managed to look handsome every morning when he didn't try. She sounded like a love sick high school girl and it frustrated her.

She wasn't supposed to be falling in love with her boss. She was supposed to be fighting against his many years of assholery that he thrived off of and took pride in. She was supposed to be fighting for the many models he had fired mercilessly, and yet…

She somehow fell in love with him.

"I do love him," C.C. muttered, dropping her face into her hands. "I fell in love with that bastard of all people…"

Cecile smiled, happy that the girl finally came to the conclusion that she had probably been denying for quite a while now. "I know it's a bit hard to come to terms to right now, but it'll turn into a form of happiness." She reached across the table and pat the younger woman's hair lightly. "It'll be okay."

C.C. brought her face up and gave the woman a small smile, who returned it cheerfully.

"Now how about we head to your last photoshoot of the day," Cecile suggested.

"I didn't ea-"

"We'll order pizza later," Cecile said and then put a finger to her lips. "Don't tell Lelouch."

The green haired model smirked. "I wouldn't dare."

* * *

Later that week, after getting over himself and deciding that it was about time he actually checked up on C.C. himself instead of getting updates from Cecile - though that was because he was partly avoiding contacting C.C. - Lelouch decided to video call the said woman himself one night before he left work for the night while he was putting some finishing touches of color on his designs.

She picked up, but he got a face full of that orange blob thing (he thinks his name was Cheese-kun) she carried around with her in his condo. "C.C.," he called with a sigh.

The orange blob was removed from the screen and there was C.C. sitting on the bed up against the headboard in one of the large pajama shirts he was sure he had bought her (he had been tired of her stealing his shirts) with Cheese-kun sitting in her lap. She had a towel around her neck and he assumed she had just gotten out the shower.

"I had to put clothes on, warlock. How impatient of you," C.C. smirked at him and Lelouch only rolled his eyes at the woman.

 _Of course_ she would start the phone call off with a mischievous comment.

Lelouch noticed that she hadn't seemed as jumpy around him as she had been after he confessed to her. She still hung around him, but she didn't interact with him if she didn't have to and slept at her house instead of his. Now… She was just being C.C. as usual.

"I heard you were the star of the show today," Lelouch started and smirked to himself. "Of course one of my best models made the headlines."

"Oh, don't act so proud of yourself," C.C. scoffed before she asked, "How has Anya been doing?"

Lelouch shook his head, remembering the situation at the amusement park set of one of Anya's photoshoots. "She's doing great as always, but I wasn't aware she was so scared of heights. She had to go on a Ferris wheel and absolutely refused to enter one of the passenger cabins. It took a little longer, but the pictures turned out great."

"And Anya?"

"I gave her a week off because of it," Lelouch answered. "It's strangely quiet around here when you're not around."

"Awww," C.C. mockingly cooed and put a hand to her cheek. "You miss me, don't you?"

Lelouch only cleared his throat loudly. The last thing he would admit was that he missed her after confessing to her just two weeks ago. That would be quite… Unflattering of him. "You're coming back home tomorrow," he opted to say instead. "There's no need to miss you, witch."

"The warlock has a hard time admitting his feelings, doesn't he?" C.C. chuckled.

"I don't have a hard time admitting my feelings when I-" Lelouch stopped himself, realizing that he was bringing up his confession to her from not too long ago. His face turned red and he missed the pink blush that had crossed C.C.'s face in his own realization.

A small cough from C.C. brought his attention and he looked back at the screen to see her playing around with her hands. "Right… Your confession…" she mumbled.

Lelouch inwardly groaned.

He was so stupid.

Curse him and his goddamn loud ass mouth.

"God, I'm sorry C.C. I didn't mean to-"

N-No, it's okay," she interrupted with a slight stammer. "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."

Was it weird for his heart to start racing?

Lelouch didn't know, but he wasn't sure if this was a good thing or bad thing. "You did?" he questioned in a voice that could sound as neutral as possible.

"I wanted to tell you about my answer. I thought about it, and…"

Oh, no.

He was in for another week of eating ice cream.

"I'll tell you once I arrive home. You'll want to hear what I have to say in person," C.C. said to him and Lelouch couldn't tell what that meant from the expression on her face. It was a mix of surety and unsurety.

Ah, so eating ice cream for a whole week was postponed.

Yes, that wasn't very… Manly of him, but hey, men experienced broken hearts and he was well prepared to experience a second one.

"Um," he coughed awkwardly. "I'll wait patiently for what you have to say, then…"

"Lelouch?"

The fashion designer peaked between his bangs hanging in front of his face to look at C.C. who was looking more attractive than he would've liked for her to at the moment in just her pajama shirt and hair that wasn't even close to completely dry. He licked his lips and answered, "Yes?"

"I know you're staring at me," she smirked.

His face turned red at the fact that his subtle staring was not so subtle. "I am not, you witch!"

"You're so in love with me that you could stare at me all day. Aww," she cooed.

" _C.C._ "

"Yes?" C.C. had blinked back at Lelouch through her eyelashes innocently and he couldn't help the chuckle that had escaped his lips instead of something snappy.

He hated how this woman made him soft.

A smile of her own played on her lips, making Lelouch think that it really looked more adorable that he would've liked for it to be. "You should laugh more often. You sound like less of an asshole."

"Hmm, I think being an asshole suits me more. Though, I would have to say the other girls disagree. They all gave me a group hug and I'm disappointed that half of them aren't scared of me anymore."

"They were never scared of you," C.C. hummed. "They were just waiting for you to act like a decent human being once in a while. Try it more often."

He had been trying more often.

And it was all because of her.

He was more in love with this woman that he thought.

"I'll try it more often as long as you agree to not eat pizza without my permission."

"Ah, so you found the credit card transactions?" C.C. smirked mischievously, wondering how long it was going to take him to find out she had been. "About time."

Lelouch smirked back. "You're sneaky, witch."

"You try your hardest to take away my love for pizza, but you only continuously fail. Imagine putting that much effort into something as trivial as that." C.C. shook her head in mock disappointment, but Lelouch could see the smile she was trying to hide on her face.

"That encourages me to try even harder," Lelouch told her with a smile of his own. "Now, how about you head to bed, witch? It would be troublesome to have bags under your eyes again and you have an early flight back tomorrow, don't you?"

"I thought I told you, eyes with bags under them are the new look," C.C. joked.

"Well, let's avoid you looking like shit again, don't we?"

C.C. rolled her eyes, not in annoyance but in pure amusement with the man in front of her. "Goodnight, Lelouch."

"Goodnight, witch."

"Isn't that rude?"

"You're right." Lelouch tilted his head and gave C.C. an incredibly handsome smile that could almost be illegal. "Goodnight, Cera." And with that, he cut the call, not even bothering to see the expression present on her face.

Shortly after ending the call with C.C., Lelouch got a text from Cecile.

 _Cecile: I think Miss C.C. might have just sprained her wrist after falling off the bed._

He couldn't help but roll his eyes and smirk in amusement.

He'd scold her for it later.

…

Lelouch wasn't one to ever be nervous or get stressed because he basically lived off of other people who experienced that just being in presence, but never did he think he'd be sitting in his office waiting for C.C. and Cecile to walk through the doors. He tried to go on another floor to work on his designs, but he found he couldn't focus while knowing that C.C. was coming back today and that she could tell him how he felt at any moment and he _really_ wanted to know if he had to prepare himself to mope at any given moment or not.

He huffed and looked down at his watch. It was eleven-thirty. Cecile had said they'd be back by eleven o'clock and they hadn't arrived yet. Lelouch slumped in his chair, running a hand through his bangs and thinking that he was really starting to sound a bit obsessive.

The raven haired designer stood up and went to exit his office, deciding that he would try to work on some more designs again. He had a few more to make for that _bastard's_ \- his father's - fashion show to make. In fact, he had the perfect idea for this outfit-

"AGH!" Lelouch was not expecting the door to collide with his face right before he opened and he fell back onto the floor. Hard.

He did not see the head full of blue hair peek in and welcome herself into the office. As he sat back up and rubbed his head - it hurt like hell - a voice mischievously said, "How nice of you to welcome us back down on the floor, Lelouch."

"I'm not even going to reply that," Lelouch muttered and blinked a few more times to clear his vision and cast a glare at the blue haired manager. "What the hell, Cecile?"

Cecile let out a nervous apologetic chuckle. "I'm sorry, Lelouch. I didn't know you were at the door."

"That's gonna be a bad bruise later," C.C. smirked. "It might even swell."

"God, witch, please stop talking," Lelouch growled.

"You always stop me from saying what I really feel, don't you?"

"With you… Always."

"I really am sorry, Lelouch," Cecile apologized, helping Lelouch up from the floor. She inspected the bump on his head and frowned slightly. "I should go get you some ice."

"Please tell me it's not that bad," Lelouch begged Cecile. He couldn't ruin his face.

It was too pretty.

"Then… I won't," Cecile replied before running of to go get a bag of ice.

"Well, your day started off rough, didn't it?"

Lelouch rolled his eyes.

He was starting to do that a lot.

"It was going quite well before either of you walked in the room," Lelouch said, finally directly looking at C.C. The ends of her hair were curled - it must have been from the fashion show yesterday - and she had on a long sleeved, shoulderless, red flare dress with a black belt around the waist. Black heels adorned her feet along with black sunglasses on the top of her head.

He noticed how she was starting to dress much better over the last four months.

She would've never worn heels or a dress when she first started.

And now she looked too good.

"How was your flight?" Lelouch asked instead. Admiring her beauty would do him no good in the way he was currently feeling.

"Boring. I slept mostly and read."

Lelouch rose an eyebrow at the model. "You read?"

C.C. hated reading.

"Yes," C.C. waved dismissively. "Anyway, how has my cat been doing?"

"It's _our_ cat," he reminded her and C.C. just smiled at him. "And Artemis is as much of an annoyance as you are."

"I picked it out and named it, so it's mine," C.C. concluded with a smirk that Lelouch didn't even bother to argue with. "Do I have anything to do today or am I free for the rest of the day?"

"Didn't Cecile tell you that you're free until the end of next week?

"Of course, but it's _you_."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Figure it out."

"Ugh," Lelouch groaned.

"Well, I'll be on my way. I said I'd meet Euphy today to go shopping. She said she wants to complain about Suzaku," C.C. mentioned with a small smirk of amusement crossing her face at the last sentence.

"Ah, yes. He forgot their anniversary," Lelouch chuckled, remembering his friend telling him how Euphemia had burst into tears and forced him to sleep on the couch. "The dumbass…"

"She said that one round of- Well, never mind. Just that Suzaku thought she had forgiven him when she didn't actually, so he still has some apologizing to do," the model explained to him and scrunched her nose. "Married people are troublesome."

"I can't disagree."

"When I'm finished with my outing with Euphemia, I will be coming over," C.C. told him while looking at her manicured nails. "Your house is closer to the shopping mall we're going to."

"I'll be home a little later, so just welcome yourself in," Lelouch said.

"Oh? Why?"

"I have to visit the boutique. Apparently they're having a few issues," Lelouch shrugged. "Or the manager is being more of a bitch than me."

C.C. couldn't help the laugh that escaped her mouth. She crossed her arms under her chest and licked her bottom lip. "I'll leave you to deal with that, then." She reached out and pat his chest. "Good-bye, my dear warlock."

She didn't wait for his answer before she left the room with a small wave, leaving Lelouch to mutter to himself in confusion. "My dear warlock?"

There was no reason for C.C. to leave him as confused as she always did.

…

Lelouch wasn't sure what C.C. was doing while she had been at his house when he got home, but he was definitely sure he hadn't expected to find food wrapped up on the table, the kitchen clean, and none of C.C.'s things discarded on the floor.

It was actually clean and she hadn't burned down the house while cooking (C.C. wasn't a bad cook, but she had a bad habit of being reckless in the kitchen. It was the reason there was a crack in his marble kitchen floor.)

"C.C.?" he called.

The said woman around the corner in denim shorts and a sleeveless tank top with a towel wrapped around her head. "Oh, you're back. I didn't hear you come in."

"Who knew you could cook and clean?" Lelouch replied instead. "I applaud you for that."

The green haired model gave him a flat look. "I know how to do housework, Lelouch."

"Past events have proven that statement wrong," he laughed.

C.C. flicked him in the head. "Better to not know how to do housework that be an asshole daily, huh?" she shot back.

Lelouch grabbed her hand that had flicked him in the head and lowered it. He smirked. "Being an asshole is how I get by in life. Try it."

"Never." She returned his smirk and Lelouch scoffed.

Lelouch walked into the kitchen to get a glass of champagne to go with his dinner - he needed it after the shenanigans at the boutique - and C.C. followed close behind him with his food in her hand. She placed it in the microwave, turning it to five minutes, and turned around just in time to see Lelouch down a glass of champagne in one go.

"Now you know how it feels to be around you."

"Oh, shut it, you witch."

"How rude of you."

Lelouch sipped at his champagne while C.C. patiently waited for his food to finish in the microwave. She tapped her foot on the floor, wondering if he was going to say anything to her. They hadn't talked about the confession since last night and Lelouch didn't even mention or hint at wanting to know. She even flirted with him and called him "my dear warlock". Wouldn't that have given him a hint?

The microwave beeped, telling C.C. Lelouch's food was ready, but she wasn't thinking because for some reason she thought it was a good idea to try to grab the plate hot without a mitten and ended up burning herself. "Fuck!" she cursed.

Before she could even do anything herself, Lelouch had dragged her over to the sink and ran cold water over her, his hand wrapped securely around her wrist so she wouldn't move it. "C.C., the plate was hot."

"I was thinking."

"Thinking deep enough to burn yourself?"

"... Yes."

Lelouch only scoffed in reply.

"Well, Lelouch, what would you have preferred me to do if I hadn't been thinking?" C.C. asked him.

"To get mittens, witch."

"What if I actually didn't want mittens?"

"Now you're just being stubborn, C.C."

"Is that so?" she smirked mischievously, using her free hand to poke him in the chest. "You've just been a bad influence on me. It's sad how you rub off so badly on your models."

"I am not-" Lelouch shut his mouth, not finishing the sentence because then he would be proving C.C.'s point correct. "I hate you."

"Aww, I love you, too," C.C. replied, hoping that would give Lelouch another hint at what she was trying to say. Instead, he started to choke and C.C. turned off the water and used her good hand to pat him on the back. "You're going to really have to stop choking on air."

"Well, that's hard when it always you making me do it," Lelouch croaked.

"Hmm, isn't that unfortunate?" she chuckled.

Lelouch walked over to another cabinet nearby and took out a first aid kit. He took out a gauze and ointment that would lessen her burn and walked back over to C.C. at the sink. "Not as unfortunate as your very first catwalk."

"You wouldn't even know how unfortunate it was with the number of times you stopped me before I could even walk down the runway to practice."

"Practice makes perfect, does it not?"

"Not when you weren't even letting me practice."

"I let you walk down the runway fully plenty of times."

C.C. snorted. "After three hours of practice you would."

After applying the ointment, Lelouch started to wrap C.C.'s hand with the gauze. "Without those three hours of practice everyday, you wouldn't have the wonderful walk you have now, would you?" he smiled.

"Do I walk better than you yet?" C.C. asked him with her own smile.

"I don't think so," Lelouch replied with a shake of his head and ripped the edge of the gauze, tucking it, and finishing C.C.'s hand. He never dropped it from his hold, saying, "It's almost there, though."

C.C. took a step toward him and asked with a small smirk, "How do I know when I'm there?"

"When-"

*CRASH*

C.C. and Lelouch jumped apart to see the plate of food had fallen to the floor and Lelouch groaned. "It must have been on the edge of the microwave after you tried to grab it."

C.C. was highly annoyed because she couldn't even get the words "I love you" out of her mouth to tell Lelouch and a plate of food interrupted whatever moment they were about to have. She'd be damned if the rest of the night passed and she still didn't get to tell him.

Yes, she sounded like an impatient high school girl, but what other way was she going to get her feelings across?

"Lelouch," C.C. called.

The raven haired designer turned around with a slightly annoyed look upon his face. "Wh- Mmmph!"

He had not been expecting C.C. to grab his face and kiss him full on the lips. She pulled away, her face dark red while Lelouch stood in shock at the fact that she had _kissed_ him.

"That's how I feel," she told him confidently.

"Huh?"

"That's my answer."

It took Lelouch a few seconds to realize what she had been talking about and he was just partly glad that he didn't have to stock up on any ice cream in the upcoming days." Oh…"

C.C. took a step closer to him and said, "At first I wasn't sure, but I realized that I did love you. I just thought you were my friend and someone that I could always be with no matter what, but I guess… I guess had denied that those feelings were love…"

She walked forward until their faces were only inches apart from one another. "I love you, Lelouch."

"C.C…"

"And will you always mean it when you say you love me?" she asked him once again.

Lelouch straightened and gave her a small smile. He barely touched C.C.'s fingers and when she didn't shake away, he took that as permission to intertwine them. "Always. Whether we're friends or not."

She returned his smile before closing the gap between them and kissing Lelouch once again. He brought his hands up and held her face in his hands while she reached up and gripped the front of his shirt with her of hers.

The kiss was soft and passionate, almost like experiencing a first kiss with the very first person they fell in love with.

C.C. pulled away first and she didn't even bother to try and hide how red her face currently was. She leaned her head against his chest and mumbled, "I wasn't supposed to fall in love with my boss."

"And I wasn't supposed to fall in love with my model," Lelouch mumbled himself, but she could hear the smile in his voice.

C.C. took a step back and looked straight up at him. "How long have you liked me?"

That threw Lelouch off, but he answered anyway. "Since… Since I first met you."

His answer caused an amused smile to cross C.C.'s face. "So you've been in love with me this whole time?"

"I-I haven't technically," Lelouch blushed. "I just didn't notice until over almost two months ago…"

"It's true that I disliked you when we first met just like… Most of the world," C.C. admitted with a shrug. Lelouch scoffed lowly at that. "But I never hated you."

The raven haired man rose an eyebrow. "Isn't that the same thing?"

"You were just an asshole and assholes don't get any kindness from non-assholes. If you can't handle what you dish out, then where is the fun in that?"

"Ah, so you treated me like a game?"

"A fun human game who was paying me thousands to just model for him."

"Your witch behavior is getting out of hand."

"Is it too out of hand for you to stop kissing me?"

Lelouch smirked. "Why?"

"Because you're talking too much." And with that, C.C. pulled Lelouch down by his collar and into another sweet kiss.

 **Isn't the end of this chapter nice?**

 **I wanted to get across that even though C.C. and Lelouch skirt around each other is that they still can't help but be around each other and have their usual interactions with one another, you know? Also, I apologize for the cliffhanger (not really). I know that killed you all. Also, I have a choice of two words that I need you all to pick, so I'm gonna kind really need you to review to know which one you pick. It's LuluCC related.**

 **Which words or phrase:**

 **1\. Exes**

 **2\. Royals**

 **Just tell me which one you pick and then I'll have a sure choice about something that miiiiiight be another short story hehe.**

 **Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.**

 **Read and Review please!**


	6. Chapter 6

**So I lied. Again. This story has at least two more chapters.**

 **I'm sorry it took me three months to update this. I had bad writer's block. I wrote two drafts for this chapter. For the first draft, I wrote it, and then I realized that "Hey, I would need to add at least two more chapters of this story if I go with my original plan with my story." _SO_ I wrote a second draft and decided that it would be the last chapter until I realized that if it were the last chapter, the ending would be completely out of nowhere and super rushed. In the end, I ended up going back to my first draft, adding to it, and just deciding that yeah, to hell with it. This needs two more extra chapters since this was my original plan for the story, and that is why it took me three months to update this and I am sooooooooooooo sorry.**

 **Anyways, let me not hold you all any longer.**

 **Enjoy! :)**

 **P.S. Don't kill me.**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 6**

A month.

A month had passed since C.C. had officially returned Lelouch's feelings and he would be lying more than he did in high school to get out of going to class if he said he wasn't the happiest man alive at the moment. Yes, he sounded like a teenager who had successfully asked the girl out he liked to the school dance, but it was better for everyone around him when he was happy; therefore, they wouldn't have to experience his oh-so infamous wrath for the next month.

During the first week, they had decided to keep things quiet just because of the commotion and ruckus they knew would come from his employees, the media, and the worst - his family.

Any famous person would usually pick the media finding out about their relationship would ruin their life, but Lelouch was sure it would be his family. Not only were most of his siblings huge assholes - excluding all his younger sisters and Rolo - but somehow his business was always theirs and he'd never hear the end of it; that included his own mother and the mothers of all his half-siblings.

That agreement lasted a week before everything came crashing down and went to hell for him.

Lelouch was usually a very observant and has had many instances where he had to pay off paparazzi to keep their mouths shut about the things he didn't want out in the media, but one evening when he had left the balcony door of his bedroom open for C.C.'s annoying cat to get "fresh air", a paparazzi hiding in the trees had snapped a clear shot of C.C. having pulled him into a kiss after she entered his room. The news had spread like wildfire that he was dating the popular model and the company had been getting calls for the last week over it. It strangely also gave C.C. more offerings, the model having to turn half of them down simply because she refused to work a schedule that full.

However, this included his family discovering his current relationship status.

His mother had stormed into his office, demanding when he and C.C. had officially become a thing and why he hadn't mentioned it to her or the rest of the people he reluctantly called family.

His annoyed but simple answer was "This is the reason why," in regards to his mother having stormed into his office without permission and throwing a magazine in his face. Marianne huffed, only muttering something about how she was going to put out an official statement to the public in response.

The media had calmed after the official statement was made, but that didn't he mean he wasn't more wary when going out in the public now. He received much hate mail for "stealing" the public's "sweetheart", but he could only scoff at it as he read it. C.C. was no sweetheart and he bathed in the hate he received.

He was infamous after all.

…

"C.C., get up."

The green haired woman ignored the calls of her boyfriend shaking her awake and doing his very annoying loud clapping that would hurt someone's ears. She pulled the cover over her head and closed her eyes again, deciding that she was in the mood to fight him this morning.

"Cera."

"You still have no rights to that name yet."

"I'm your boyfriend."

"And you're still an unlikable asshole to the general public."

She heard him groan in annoyance before he snatched the covers off her all together, causing her to curl into herself. She still refused to open her eyes. "You're in my bed, C.C. Did you also forget that you have to try on my new designs for the fashion show today?"

"You have Euphemia and Anya. You don't need me."

"You're all literally modeling different clothing that are different sizes, C.C." He took a sit on the side of his bed where she was lying and yanked her ankle. "Why are you so tired?"

Finally, she opened an eye, trying to resist her lips from turning up in a tiny smirk. "Who's fault is that?" C.C. asked him.

"I- You initiated it!" Lelouch exclaimed, yanking at her ankle once again in embarrassment.

"I just sat in your lap," C.C. replied innocently. "That means nothing."

Lelouch's face turned a deep red that he knew amused his girlfriend more it should've. He had _not_ initiated the makeout session they had late last night despite what she annoyingly insisted. In fact, he hadn't initiated any of them except for the one they had on his office desk that… And that had ended up in C.C. falling halfway off the desk when his mother had knocked _very_ loudly on the door to show him the layout of the venue for his father's fashion show.

"See?" C.C. chuckled lowly, snatching the blankets back from him and putting them back over her head.

When he had finally escaped his blushing stupor, he snatched the blankets back from off C.C. and glared at her. "Get up, witch. We're going to be late."

"For a fitting? At _your_ company?"

"Just because I'm the CEO, it doesn't mean it's proper for _me_ or _you_ to be late."

"Hmm, not fair enough, but fair enough for now," C.C. muttered begrudgingly. She sat up slowly, blowing a piece of hair out of the way of her face, but failed to the action, causing a chuckle to escape from her new boyfriend's lips.

"You don't look much like a model right now, do you?" he asked her, reaching out and moving the piece of her hair from out of her face successfully. "Now get up so we can leave. We don't have time to eat, so we'll get lunch later."

"This is my natural beauty," C.C. smiled at him in amusement. "Isn't this the face you fell in love with? Not the one full of makeup?"

The fashion designer grabbed her hand and brushed his lips against her knuckles; the result was the smile on C.C.'s face turning to one of pleasantry. "Maybe it's because you look like a beautiful model either way."

C.C. snatched her hand away and playfully hit him in the chest. "You're so cheesy," she mumbled, but couldn't ignore the smile widening on her face.

"It's my job as your boyfriend."

"Go back to being an asshole. You're being too nice." She scrunched her nose as she stood up from the bed. Her phone vibrated on the nightstand and she checked it to see it was a text from Cecile. She deeply frowned at the text.

Lelouch noticed the frown on her face and stood up. "What's wrong?"

"I thought my only schedule today was fitting?"

Her raven haired boyfriend suddenly found the floor very interesting. "I might have… Added a photo shoot to it," he coughed.

"Why?"

"You dared to order a pizza without my permission last week and you laughed when I said there would be consequences." He looked back up at her and a full smirk was present on his face. "Here's the consequence."

C.C. glared at him. "Asshole."

"I'm glad you know that you aren't exempt from my behavior."

The model rolled her eyes and pushed passed him, a disgruntled looked planted on her face. It was more cute than intimidating. "You're not funny, warlock," she hissed before exiting the room.

Lelouch shrugged in triumph.

He could deal with a pissed off girlfriend for the day.

…

"What's wrong with C.C.?" Suzaku asked his best friend.

Euphemia had brought him along with her this morning for the simple fact that she wanted Suzaku to see her in the new designs, despite the fact that Lelouch had a strict rule that no one else outside the company was allowed to see them. She ignored him.

Lelouch glanced at C.C. who was shooting him a sharp glare every ten minutes before going back to talk to Mutsuki who was helping her in and out of her clothes. He turned back to Suzaku with a small shrug and sipped on his coffee. "She has a photoshoot later on."

Suzaku rose an eyebrow. "I'm confused. Isn't that part of her job?"

"I added it to her schedule over the weekend and she only found out this morning."

Suzaku gave Lelouch a flat look and kicked his ankle. He ignored the heated glare that came his way. "Anyone would be upset about that, Lelouch. It's like finding out your class in canceled after arriving at school."

"She shouldn't have ordered that pizza Friday," Lelouch said, not feeling an ounce of guilt.

"That's extremely petty, Lelouch."

"I'm _the_ Lelouch Lamperouge. Is it still petty?"

"... Yes."

"Hmm."

"You should apologize."

Lelouch gave Suzaku a look as if he had grown two heads. "For what?"

"Are you really asking that?"

"Yes."

"This is why we weren't friends for months back in high school," Suzaku mumbled under his breath, but the fashion designer next to him had heard.

"Well, if you had gotten over yourself for a small mistake I made, then maybe we would've never stopped talking for months."

The architect snorted. "Oh, so my first girlfriend dating me to get closer to you and you knowing that knowledge is a small mistake? Not to mention, you had a huge lying problem."

Lelouch groaned. "I said I was just trying to keep you from getting your heart broken."

"Lelouch, y- Ugh," Suzaku shook his head. He wasn't going to argue with his friend about something that had been dealt with long ago. "This is off topic. My point is that you should apologize to C.C. I'm sure she was looking forward to having the rest of the day to herself."

With a deep sigh, Lelouch placed his coffee down and said, "Alright, maybe I was-" Suzaku rose an eyebrow and Lelouch huffed. "Okay, I was being an asshole when I did that, but she can't pull out of it now."

"So, make it up to her," Suzaku suggested to him, his emerald eyes looking at his wife who was trying on her own designs. "It took a minute for me to get Euphy's forgiveness after I forgot our third wedding anniversary."

"What did you do since you're such an _expert_?"

"Euphy likes domestic things since she's never home, so I cooked dinner for her," Suzaku smiled, remembering how happy his wife looked when he had surprised her the night she came home.

Lelouch furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "You cooked? With the help of who?"

The architect didn't know whether he was offended or not at the genuine confused look across his best friend's face. "I'm not _that_ bad at cooking, Lelouch. I can follow a recipe."

Lelouch snorted and took a sip of his coffee again. "You could've fooled me with the many times you've asked me to help you cook… Or the maid."

"We're getting absolutely nowhere with this conversation," Suzaku realized and dragged a hand down his face. His best friend could be so tiring sometimes.

"You're just saying that I should do something that C.C. likes to apologize."

"Or _just apologize_ since we know how hard that is for you."

"Apologizing isn't hard for me."

Suzaku gave him a flat look in reply.

"Fine," Lelouch finally agreed, putting down his cup of coffee on the desk and sighing in defeat. "I'll apologize to her once she's finished with her fittings. I was being a petty asshole."

A smile crossed Suzaku's face and he pat Lelouch's shoulder. "You've grown."

"Tsk."

An hour later after the fittings were done and finished, Lelouch had to go find C.C. who had strangely and quickly disappeared. He found her standing in front of the elevators and just as she walked into the elevator, he slipped in between the doors, sighing in relief when he had made it just in time.

"C.C.," Lelouch sighed. He cringed as the next words fell out of his mouth. "I'm sorry."

The model snapped her head towards him, eyebrow raised and arms crossed under her chest. "Now say that without cringing."

Lelouch took a deep breath, trying his best not to get irritated because he was and had been the asshole in this situation. "Cera-"

"C.C."

 _She really picks today to be difficult_ , Lelouch thought. He took a step closer and she took one away, making the designer rolls his eyes, but he used the correction of her name just so things wouldn't be made any worse. "C.C., I'm sorry for adding that photoshoot to your schedule. That was… very inconsiderate of me and I would cancel it if I could, but it's too late for me to cancel."

C.C. glanced up at Lelouch and let a sigh escape her mouth. "That's the most genuine I've ever heard you sound."

"So I wasn't genuine when I said I loved you?" Lelouch asked, a small smirk etching on his face.

C.C. smiled slightly. "No, you were genuine. It's the most genuine I've ever heard you apologize to someone." She took a step closer to Lelouch and a small smile crossed the raven haired man's face.

She wasn't upset anymore.

"I'll make it up to you for the photoshoot that you'll be doing today."

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. The couple stepped off and as they walked through the lobby, C.C. said, "And how may I ask?"

"If you want pizza, I'll give it to you," Lelouch grit through his teeth.

The things he does for this woman.

"I don't want pizza."

Lelouch did a double take. "You don't what?"

"Give me your card. I want to go shopping," C.C. told him.

"... You literally get all the latest things as a model, C.C."

"Sometimes I just want to be a regular person and go on shopping sprees at high-end boutiques."

"You know," Lelouch groaned as he fished his wallet out of his pants' pocket and took his black credit cars out, "You're a vile person."

C.C. snatched the credit card from his hands and smirked. "You currently have no room to talk, my dearest warlock." She admired the credit card in her hand. "How pretty."

"Please don't spend so much money, C.C. Your room is already full of things given to you."

"The perks of being model, huh? And most of them are formal wear. I'd like to have a variety of casual clothing," she shrugged.

"How surprising seeing as you were in a t-shirt and jeans when we first met," Lelouch chuckled, making a shot at how his girlfriend use to previously dress. "You also came in flats your very first day."

C.C. pushed him in the shoulder. "Well, I'm sorry that I wasn't a fashion obsessed diva unlike someone. I afforded what I, as a poor person, could. I could also talk about how much of a egoistic, stuck up bastard you use to be." She then added, "Not that you still aren't."

"How endearing," Lelouch replied sarcastically. "The-"

Lelouch stopped in his tracks when he saw the commotion going on at the front doors of his lobby. His eyes narrowed and he went over to his secretary, hissing, "Who is that and what are they doing in my building?"

There was fear in the secretary's eyes and she swallowed. "Well," she started, "It's-

"Lelouch."

The raven haired male froze in his spot, hands fisting until they turned white and his teeth grit tightly. He spun on his heel, a heated glare on his face and growling out darkly, "Charles."

The said man with long light brown hair with gray in strands stood tall with a deep smirk upon his face. Just like the one Lelouch wore sometimes. "Now is that proper for you to call your father by his name, Lelouch?" Charles said.

"You aren't my father, _you bastard_ ," Lelouch growled. As he walked up to his father, the media cleared his path way until Lelouch was directly in front of the taller man.

"The media is around, son."

The glare on Lelouch's face turned into a triumphant smirk. "That's never stopped me before, has it?" He had been in the media for being "rude" many times before. What would change that this time?

"It stopped you that last time you almost ki-"

"We don't mention _that_ here," Lelouch quickly interrupted.

"I thought so."

Lelouch took his eyes off his father and shot heated glares towards the reporters currently flooding his usually empty lobby. "I would like all of you to kindly _fuck off_ while zi Britannia and I go talk somewhere _privately_."

"Ah, the same attitude as always, Lamperouge," one of the reporters said, unfazed.

"What is it that you all are talking about?"

"Does it have something to do with the company?"

"What about your girlfriend, Cera Lee?"

Lelouch stilled, having completely forgotten about his girlfriend nearby and cast her a nod telling her to go back before the reporters started shooting her endless questions that she'd never be able to answer. She shook her head "no" firmly - that was before Lelouch had looked at her pleadingly and hesitantly, the model rounded the corner again.

The raven haired man turned on his heel, his father walking behind him in slow, big steps.

His day was completely ruined.

…

When Lelouch had entered his office with Charles, he slammed the door shut and glared at his father who was comfortably seated on the couch. He didn't even bother to sit down, deciding that he'd like to keep his distance by standing near the door. "What the hell do you want, you bastard?" he sneered.

Charles remained unfazed by the attitude of his son and smiled slightly; it was the smile of a man who knew he could get anything he wanted if he asked… or took it. "Now why would you assume such a thing, son?"

"I'm no son of yours, you bastard. I'm Marianne Lamperouge's son and nothing more," he growled. Lelouch was having much trouble trying to keep his temper in check, but that was hard when his father was worse than him in every single way. "It'd be nice if you were in my life, and then maybe you'd be able to call me ''son."

"Now, now, I did put your mother in rehabilitation when there was nothing you could do," Charles.

"What the hell is a ten year old supposed to do with an anorexic mother?" He was sure his voice became an even deeper growl the more he continued to talk to his father. "You only did it so you wouldn't look bad in the media and seem as if you were neglecting the mother of your children."

At that, Charles frowned. "I love your mother."

"Say that to the other seven women I have siblings from."

"Bitter, aren't we?"

The younger designer took a couple of steps forward and growled firmly, " _What the hell do you want?_ "

"I have come to make a proposal to you."

"No. Now get the hell out of my office."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"It's about Cera Lee."

That caught Lelouch's ears. "Charles, if you even-"

"Give her to me."

Now Lelouch was sure he was pretty pissed off at the moment.

"What the fuck do you mean give her to you?!" he shouted.

"I want her to work for my fashion company. Not only will she be paid more, but she'll have many more benefits with me than… With you. She'll get what she actually deserves and will rise her to your mother's level," Charles explained with the smallest of smirks. "She's too good to be working with you."

"Fuck that. She's not going anywhere," Lelouch immediately shut down. "She's already in your damn fashion show next month before she lea-" the designer clamped his mouth shut, realizing that he had just almost revealed the deal that was only a secret between him and C.C. "I mean-"

The smirk on Charles' face widened. "Now where would she be leaving to, Lelouch?"

"None of your fucking business. Leave."

"Sad that you already revealed it because I'm very aware of the six month contract between you and C.C." Charles completed. "You were in desperate need of a model, but your contract is only six months and after that, you promised to let her go. Just to prove that you're not a bastard like me."

Lelouch's eyes had sharpened dangerously. "How do you even know that?"

"I have people everywhere, Lelouch. Even in your boutique."

Oh.

Oh, every single person on that staff was getting _fucking fired_ after this.

"So, Miss Cera is technically out of a contract after this, no?" Charles had stood up and walked up to Lelouch. "Perfect timing."

"All she has to do is renew her contract."

"But is that what _she_ wants?"

"Yes." Lelouch knew his answer had come out completely unsure because as far as he knew, C.C. had said she wanted to stay for the extended six months. She had never said or mentioned anything about wanting a full contract.

"Maybe I should talk to her. She is present."

"No, she isn't."

"It's hard to miss green hair round a corner, son."

"C.C. works for me, which means she's mine, so don't come anywhere near her."

"Is that because she's your girlfriend or do you really care for the wellbeing of her as a model?" the CEO asked him lowly, leaning into Lelouch's face. "They're different."

"I want her to have nothing to do with you," Lelouch hissed equally as lowly. "You're a manipulative bastard who only works his models to death."

"Is that so?"

"Mother almost died."

"But I was the one who saved her."

"Her rehabilitation did."

"Would she had ever gone if I hadn't admitted her?"

"You…" Lelouch was sure his temper had snapped at that moment because the next thing he did was turn on his heel, yank the door open, and hissed lowly, "Get the fuck out of my office. _Now_."

Charles only smiled in triumph. His hands were folded behind his back as he exited the office. "You should tell Miss Cera, or I'll do it."

"Get OUT!" Lelouch yelled again, his hand squeezing tightly around the doorknob. "NOW!"

Charles only chuckled as he left and Lelouch slammed the door behind him. The slam was so loud that it resulted in the vase falling off the stand in room. The raven haired designer slumped against the back of the door and ran his hands through his hair until he was sure it didn't look presentable anymore.

He had no doubt that his father would tell C.C. if he didn't do it and his father worked quick… So it might have been better if he had told C.C. about the offer sooner than later, but he didn't want to let her go. Yet, that wasn't his decision to make… It was hers no matter how he felt about it. Even if it also involved his bastard of a father.

Calming his anger, Lelouch pushed himself off the door and walked over to his desk. He pushed the button on his intercom and told Shirley lowly, "Please send C.C. to my office."

...

C.C. wasn't sure what had happened between the time Lelouch had left to enter the office with his father and after his father had left, but she remembered seeing the larger man leave the building with a satisfied smirk. It worried her, but Lelouch had handled it, right?

When she entered his office after Shirley had sent for someone to come fetch her, she saw Lelouch smile at her, but he looked tired. She sent a small smile back at him, yet she couldn't manage to fully smile at him because she had a bad feeling for some reason.

She took a sit in the chair on the opposite side of his desk and asked, "How did everything go?" she knew it was a stupid question, but she hadn't known what else to say. Lelouch hadn't said anything since he entered the room.

He sighed lowly. "Just… My father had some things he wanted to talk about…" the designer closed his fist atop his desk tightly. "He wanted to talk about you."

"Me?" C.C., though she would not admit it out loud, was confused. "What would your father want with me?"

"He knows about our contract…" Lelouch mumbled.

C.C.'s eyes widened slightly. No one knew about that contract except for her and Lelouch. It had been extended from one month to six months to see if he could keep a model for long and that would have been the end of their short deal, but… She didn't want their deal to come to an end. She could get contract renewal if she pleased.

Figuring she wasn't going to reply, Lelouch continued. "And he wants… He wants to take you in."

C.C.'s eyebrows furrowed. "Take me in? You mean sign a contract with him?"

"He knows that your contract ends at the beginning of next month. I told him no, but that… That wasn't my choice," Lelouch told her quietly. He squeezed his eyes shut before opening them back up again harshly. "If Charles reveals that our contract was based off of a deal, then the public won't leave you alone."

"I can take care of myself, Lelouch," C.C. said and rolled her eyes. She didn't have time for her boyfriend's dramatics today. "Your father - a bastard - isn't going to do anything. I'm going to renew my contract with you."

"But you never wanted to model in the first place," Lelouch pointed out. For why? He didn't know, but he did it with the intention of getting rid of her right after originally, so… was she just saying she wanted to stay because of him?

"Yes, I didn't at first, Lelouch, but you know I have changed my mind about that. I love modeling just as much as your older ones. Fortunately, you were my "first" pick and I don't think I'd ever go to another modeling company," C.C. told him with surety.

"You'd get better pay from him than me…"

C.C. narrowed her eyes. What was he getting at? "You already pay me more money than any average person could ever imagine. I'm content."

"Am I good enough, though?"

"Why wouldn't you be good enough?" Her words came out harsher than intended, but she didn't like what her boyfriend was implying. She stood up and leaned in close to Lelouch's face, her golden eyes staring at him intensely. "Lelouch, I know you hate your father, but don't let him sway you into decisions you don't want to make. I make my own decisions and so do you."

"You don't know what he can do to get what he wants," Lelouch hissed lowly.

"Then, I'll just find out myself," C.C. said, sitting back down in her chair and crossing her arms under her chest. "No matter what, I'm staying right here with you."

"C.C.-"

This time C.C. stood up abruptly and walked to the door. "No. Now if you'll excuse me."

The young model left, and Lelouch didn't miss the sound of her closing the door with more force than necessary after doing so.

* * *

Later that night when C.C. entered Lelouch's apartment, she found her boyfriend cooking dinner for them both. She chuckled when she noticed the ingredients on the counter were the usual pasta dish he made when he arrived home early enough to cook but also late enough to order out. "Cera?" she heard him call and that was another thing she liked.

It bothered her before that he called her by her full name constantly in the beginning - even if she had asked him not to - but he always said it in an annoyed, demanding way, which caused her to be quite amused. This time he said it in a manner that sounded rather gentle and soft.

Almost apologetic.

"Yes, _Lelouch_?" She put emphasis on his name slight to tell him that she still upset from their meeting earlier but not too upset. The green haired woman peeked around the corner of the kitchen door to see he was still turned to the stove. "Did you call me, dear?"

Any trace of gentleness he had early was replaced with a low scoff he had let out in reply. "You're very funny, witch."

"Well, someone was the funny one earlier," C.C. pointed out, referring back to their conversation at the office earlier that day. "You tried to get rid of me earlier than our contract proposed, huh?

"Listen, my father is manipulative, C.C. You can't blame me for worrying, alright?" he muttered while turning off the stove and turning around to look at her. "He could do anything to take you away from my company and I'm just worried."

C.C. rolled her eyes once again. Part of her knew Lelouch was just worried because of his personal experience, but the other part of her knew he was also being paranoid slightly. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist and gave him a firm look. "It's going to be okay, Lelouch."

He leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. "Let's hope you have a clean past then."

"My records are clean and perfect. He can't do anything with non-existent information, Lelouch," she chuckled and placed a peck on his lips. "How about we forget about this and focus on eating…" She scrunched her nose. "Why do you let me eat pasta but not pizza?"

"It's less greasy."

"But pasta is starchy."

"I rarely cook, C.C."

"My point still stands."

"Fine. I'll continue to order you avocado toast then."

"Don't you _dare._ "

Lelouch grabbed both sides of her faces and leaned in closer. "Stop complaining then," he mumbled before kissing her, but just before they could relax into the kiss and do who-knows-what more, Lelouch's phone rang in his pocket and he let out an annoyed groan in their kiss.

"Just answer it," C.C. said into the kiss before breaking it.

Lelouch gave his girlfriend a flat look before turning to his phone and seeing the number had been from his mother. He let out another annoyed groan for the second time in under three minutes and slid his finger across the screen. "Yes, Mother?"

" _Oh, Lelouch. Shirley told me what happened today._ "

"You could've picked a better time to address this, Mother."

Marianne huffed on the other side of the line. " _I'm a busy woman, dear. You of all people know that."_

The fashion designer let out a small scoff while playing with a strand of C.C.'s hair. "And what is it that you'd like to say?"

" _I know your father can be… Insistent, so please be careful of the things he does to try to get what he wants._ "

"That bastard doesn't scare me, Mother. Besides, the most he'll get is just me going to his office and blowing it up."

" _Lelouch._ "

Lelouch sighed in annoyance. "It's okay, Mother. He's not going to try anything. That didn't work out before and it won't work out now."

" _If you say so,_ " Marianne sighed. " _I'll see you tomorrow then. Oh, and tell C.C. I said hi._ "

"Yes, Mother." And with that, Lelouch hung up and C.C. looked up at him with a question eyebrow. He matched her stare. "What?"

"What can your father do that's so bad?"

The raven haired man let out a sound full of annoyance. "When I first started up my company, Euphemia and Kallen were the first ones to join, so he basically blacklisted them to keep me from getting them any jobs or deals. He especially wasn't happy with Euphemia since she originally worked for him," Lelouch explained with a dismissive wave. "It was a bit hard, but I got around it."

"How?" C.C. asked, motioning for him to continue.

Lelouch's face fell and he let out a disgruntled sound of noise. "My brother, Schneizel."

"The lawyer?"

"Please don't remind me," Lelouch muttered, having not been happy about his brother - who he _really_ didn't favor - having to help him get out of a past predicament with their father.

C.C. chuckled. "Do you really hate him that much?"

"He's one of the reasons my life is hell."

"You're so dramatic, Lelouch."

"Says the one who threw a tantrum over a photoshoot."

"You lied to me."

"I didn't lie. I simply forgot."

"You're annoying."

"I take pride in that, you know?"

"I sometimes wonder why I love you."

"I wonder the same about you."

…

Lelouch knew that Charles would back up if he remained stubborn in listening to him, so when it remained fairly quiet, he couldn't help but be partly paranoid because that bastard could come up with anything any second.

Except being paranoid was the right thought process because his mother had entered the room with a face mixed between worry and anger. "Lelouch!"

She didn't sound too happy was the first observance the fashion designer had seen.

"You and C.C. had a contract because of a deal?!" Marianne hissed at him. "A deal?! Lelouch, you can't play games of chance like that! Anyone could find out something like that!"

Lelouch frowned deeply. He thought he had mentioned this small unknown detail to his mother in the past, but apparently not. She, just as everyone did, thought he had only found a model out of desperation. The other part of it wasn't exactly known.

He stood up and asked, "Did Charles tell you this?"

"Yes!" Marianne answered harshly. "And why did I have to find this out from him?! You didn't care to mention that?!"

"Listen, that was between me and C.C., Mother. It's not meant for anyone else to find out. That's the point," Lelouch told her, trying his best to actually hide that he was quite nervous about this fact. If Charles told his mother, then he could do anything with that information.

Like releasing it to the media.

In his whole time as a designer, Lelouch never cared what the media had to say about him or even his own models. As long as it wasn't anything too bad, then what was the harm in it? Yet this time, he actually was worried about what would happen if this got out to the public.

"I know C.C. had no previous modeling experience before this, but picking her because of a deal is dangerous, Lelouch. What the hell would make you think that's a good idea?! You're not five, you're twenty-six!" Marianne shouted at him. "You and I both know you act on instinct and irrationality too much, and this was one of them."

"I needed a _model,_ Mother," Lelouch emphasized. "And I picked Cera."

"You picked her by making a deal rather than an actual contract."

"She does have a contract."

"But to you it was never one, was it?"

Lelouch was constantly annoyed with his mother, but he never found himself angry with her all that often. He narrowed his eyes at the woman. "It _is_ a contract to me. Just because there were things added to our contract unwritten, doesn't make it not one."

"Lelouch, how long was C.C.'s contract? You've kept her this long surprisingly."

"That doesn't concern you."

Marianne narrowed her own eyes at her son. He learned everything from her, so she wasn't going to back down from her own blood. "It does, Lelouch. Especially when it involves your father."

"Her contract… was a month," he muttered. "But we extended it to six months."

The former model almost felt like she was going to lose it at that moment. "But had she signed on a monthly contract, or a six month one?"

"... It was six months and six months only."

"And what was the deal?"

"The deal was that… I could keep a model for more than a month," he started to explain to her firmly, but not as firmly as he would've liked. "If I kept her for more than a month without firing her, then she would stay the extended six months, and strictly six months only.

Marianne didn't even answer. All she did was drop herself in the chair in front of Lelouch's desk while rubbing the bridge of her nose. "So she could leave if she liked, but she stayed." she asked. "Have you all talked about it since then?"

"Charles wants her to renew her contract with him, but she has told me that the only person she'd renew it with is me, so we have already agreed to that."

"Lelouch, I know you know how persistent your father can be, and if this gets out to the media, C.C. will be torn apart. I know you don't care about bad media, but think about someone other than yourself this time."

"I _am_ thinking about C.C. in this situation, and she has already said she didn't want me to do anything. I want to respect that."

Marianne cast her son a look that was almost… Sad. "I know you do, Lelouch, but for her safety, it might just be better to make the decision this time. Charles will release that to the public, and it won't be good for her or you."

"Mother, I won't do that."

The raven haired woman stood back up and walked over to her son, placing a soft hand on the side of his cheek. "I know you'll do what's best in the end, so please think carefully," was all she said before giving him a small smile and exiting the office.

Lelouch wasn't sure if he wanted to throw himself out the window or jump into the nearest river.

…

Lelouch would have told it to her straight. He really would have, but he couldn't bring himself to do it at all. He had to because there were only two weeks until the fashion show, and if he didn't do it now, then what would be the point in telling her the day her contract is at an end?

Instead, he took the cowards way out and decided that he'd take her out for dinner first since they hadn't been on an actual date yet.

He wasn't sure if they'd still be dating by the end of all this, though.

In their private dining room he had reserved, he continuously kept fidgeting the whole time and even though C.C. had asked him many times if he was okay, even teasing him in the process, he had only insisted he was fine with a small, tight smile. He looked down at his watch and knew he should probably mention it before the end of their dinner, but C.C. looked too content right now while eating her slice of chocolate cheesecake.

As if reading his thoughts, C.C. asked once again, "Lelouch, are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered, putting on a fake smile. It was harder for him to put up this smile each time she asked.

The green haired woman put her fork down and frowned slightly. "I've known you for five and a half months, Lelouch. Something is bothering you. You're strangely quiet, and definitely not irritated for no particular reason."

"I'll tell you… After we finish. That's probably for the best."

"Why it for the best?" C.C. questioned him.

"Listen, C.C.-"

"I'm not gonna leave this alone until you tell me why you're sitting there acting like you're being held at gunpoint."

To be honest, in a way, he was.

Lelouch looked down at his lap, opening and closing his fist, before looking up and saying as firmly as he could, "Cera, you're aware that my father has knowledge that your contract was made from a deal we had made with one another, and now contract renewal is coming up."

C.C. narrowed her eyes slightly at the mention of the topic once again, but answered, "Yes, but I thought we'd speak on that when the fashion show was over."

Lelouch closed his fist tightly as he replied, "I know, but this is about your contract renewal."

"What is it?" Her voice was tight. He had never heard her voice sound like that before.

"I…" the fashion designer let out a deep breath. "When your contract is up, you will no longer be working with me. You'll have to find work elsewhere."

C.C. let out a small scoff. "No, I won't. I'm renewing my contract with you."

"Cera, I know you said that you would prefer to find out the things my father can do when he doesn't get his way, but I'm not going to risk that, so at the end of the fashion show-"

"No."

"Cera."

"No!" Lelouch had never seen C.C. angry before and it was hard to look away when her eyes were narrowed dangerously at him. "You don't make my decisions for me, Lelouch. I don't fucking care what your father is going to do and I'm not scared."

"Well, I am!" Lelouch admitted with a snap. "My father almost ruined me long ago and he can ruin you too. If it gets out that our contract was based off a deal, it'll ruin you, Cera. You've already had no experience modeling before hand. What do you think the public is going to think when they find out you were only in it for some measly money?!"

"Why do care about what they think?!"

"Because I care about you, C.C.!" He hissed. "I care about you too much and that's the thing."

C.C.'s eyes turned from dangerous to a flat, neutral stare. "Then how… How is this caring about me?"

The designer ignored her question and said, "C.C., you won't be signing with me again after the fashion show. That's final."

"..."

"When the fashion show is complete, that will be your last day with me in my company."

It felt like an eternity before C.C. answered, but it really was only two minutes. She smiled and it didn't reach her eyes. It was more of a sarcastic smile. "So you're getting rid of me and giving me to your father?"

"I'm not getting rid of you, C.C. That's not what I'm doing, okay?"

"That's exactly what you're doing."

"C.C.-"

"And you're getting rid of me to think that I'll sign over to your father's company instead. Well, guess what? Fuck your father and fuck _you,_ " she hissed at him dangerously.

"C.C., I'm just trying to protect you!" He knows it wasn't making this situation any better, but his anger was getting the best of him. He hadn't been angry in a while and now it was all coming out after being held in so long. "I don't want you to get hurt!"

C.C. abruptly stood - Lelouch didn't know how with her high heels - and glared. Hard. "I told you that I can fucking take care of myself, Lelouch! I don't need you to watch over me! I don't know why you decide something is so different about me when you've done nothing but treat all your models like shit over the years!"

Ouch.

That hit home.

"Do the same to me! Leave me to the wolves like you left your past models!"

Lelouch looked down at the table and then back up to C.C., his fist balled tightly until his knuckles turned white. Through grit teeth, he growled, "No."

C.C.'s glare didn't falter. Instead, she gathered her purse and decided she was done with this. She headed exit the room, but Lelouch grabbed her wrist. "C.C., wait-"

"Let me go."

"Not until you listen."

"I already did and I decided that everything you've said is bullshit."

"C.C.-"

She snatched her wrist out of his hand and tried to walk away quickly, but her heels were causing her to trip over her feet, so she took them both off and threw them to the floor in front of Lelouch's feet. "Fuck these shoes," she mumbled.

"Cera-"

" _Don't_ you call me that," she hissed before finally exiting their private room.

The raven haired designer stood there silently for a few seconds and sighed. He took out at least two hundred dollars from his pocket and placed it down on the table, deciding that he wouldn't wait for their waitress to arrive again. He picked up the discarded shoes, holding them tightly, before making his way out of the restaurant and trying his best to make sure he wouldn't let the water glistening in his eyes fall.

He was Lelouch Lamperouge after all.

He didn't cry.

 **Imagine that y'all waited three months for this. Love that for y'all.**

 **Anyways, I'll try to put out the next chapter as soon as possible!**

 **Read and Review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello! It's been six months ahaha... And I am SO sorry about that, but I wanted to focus on my past school semester, but now here is a new update! Also, thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! I always appreciate those so much!**

 **Let me not keep you, so enjoy! :)**

 **A Fashion Disaster: Part 7**

Lelouch was no coward.

He never considered himself to be.

He was always open, brutally honest, said his thoughts aloud whether it would piss someone off or not, and much more confident in himself than the average person, but what he never expected was to fall in love with a woman he merely met just months ago and to break her trust as soon as they fell into a relationship.

Which was why he was currently sitting in his condo, alone, without the presence of C.C., sitting in black pants, a white, wrinkled dress shirt, being a coward and refusing to come into work today to avoid the presence of his ex-girlfriend.

He was pretty sure when C.C. grouped his "fuck you" with his bastard of a father that meant she didn't want anything to do with him.

At all.

He had informed Shirley last night that he wouldn't be coming in today. He knew her and his mother would make sure everything was running smoothly and that everything would be in place for the fashion show, so he wasn't too worried and gave himself a day to sulk all day - once again, _alone_ \- in his condo and away from society. Also, while he had a pretty strict diet for himself, it wouldn't kill him to sit on his couch and eat from a carton of chocolate chip ice cream.

It was his second one and on any other day, he would probably freak out over having this amount, but he could hardly care at the moment while wrapped up in his blanket tightly and giving himself a brain freeze.

It was worse when he didn't even know where C.C. had gone last night. Obviously she didn't come home, but he had no idea where she could've gone… He didn't bother to find out unless he wanted to drive himself crazy about the thought of her whereabouts anywhere else other than this house. It was so depressing that he stuck another spoon full of ice cream in his mouth.

He glanced over at the white cat sleeping soundly on the couch beside him and sighed to himself. "It's just me and you now, huh? Because your actual owner wants my head on a pole… And I'm sitting here talking to a fucking cat." That made him put another spoon full of ice cream in his mouth.

He was pathetic.

Lelouch suddenly heard the door to his apartment opening and he was only hoping that it was a serial killer breaking in to take him away from all this pain because honestly, he wouldn't mind. The world hated him. His ex-girlfriend hated him. Being murdered would be the topping on the cake.

"Lelouch?"

Oh, it was Suzaku.

One of the few people who had a key to his house.

Would Suzaku murder him if he asked?

He didn't answer because he knew Suzaku would find him. He heard a deep sigh come from his best friend's mouth and didn't bother to take a look at him, even when he heard him take a seat next to him on the couch. "Lelouch," he called softly. "Look at me."

He refused to at first, but rather than having to talk more than necessary by arguing with Suzaku, he slowly turned his head to his best friend who had a sympathetic look on his face. He chuckled lowly. "You look a mess, Lelouch."

"I know," he muttered, not being able to get angry about Suzaku pointing out the obvious at the moment. "I was hoping you were a house intruder here to kill me."

The brown haired Japanese head shook his head at his friend's dramatics and said, "Well, that's too bad, isn't it? It's your best friend who came to check up on you since I've known you almost our whole lives."

Lelouch didn't answer.

"I know you've been wondering, but C.C. is staying at me and Euphy's house for now. I know she stayed with you, so I hope that eases some of what you're feeling," Suzaku explained to him.

Finally, he spoke up and muttered, "How was she?"

"A mess. Just like you right now. She was going to sulk all day, but she decided that her work was more important than shutting out everyone and all of society."

"I know that's a jab at me," Lelouch muttered.

Suzaku put a comforting hand on Lelouch's hand and pat it. "Hey, I know it's hard right now. That's not a decision we all have to make everyday, but there are many hard decisions we have to make everyday, and sometimes we have to keep going and moving forward."

Lelouch narrowed his eyes and Suzaku quickly explained what he meant. "I mean, sometimes we have to move forward while we work to fix our mistakes, and while I know what happened between you can C.C. wasn't a mistake and it was out of your love for her, you have to work to make it better. I know she isn't going to talk to you if going by all the curses she sent at you last night in front of me and Euphy, but don't give up now."

The raven haired fashion designer let out a deep sigh, pretty sure his eyes were watering again from either having held them open too long or from what he refused to call tears getting ready to fall. "I didn't want to have to do that to her," he admitted.

"I know."

"But Charles is so horrible…"

"I know."

"And I didn't want her to deal with the media reaction. It gets so bad, Suzaku, and I didn't want her to experience that."

"I know."

"Does that make me a terrible person?"

"No."

Lelouch ended up leaning onto Suzaku's shoulder with his eyes closed, his ice cream held tightly in his hands and mumbling, "I know I'm… Not the best person. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."

"I know."

"I'll give you a little more time, but you're getting out of this house today eventually," Suzaku told him while running a hand through his own hair. He looked down at Lelouch. "Okay?"

"I'd argue, but I'm tired," he muttered while placing his head on Suzaku's shoulder more comfortably.

"I can tell."

Suzaku took the ice cream from his best friend's hands and placed it on the coffee table. He'd let him sleep for a few minutes, maybe an hour, but he wasn't going to let his friend take his usual route of sulking. He loved C.C. very much, and while he'd have to deal with the backlash of his decision, Suzaku wasn't going to let this be the end of them. He'd find a way to help them both out, and this wasn't the end of it.

…..

Later on that day, Lelouch was reluctantly dragged out of the house by Suzaku, who told him it was better to have fresh air than be stuck in the house all day after a, as he had put it, "It's sort of a breakup, but not really one if you think about it much."

That earned him a punch in the chest.

When Suzaku said he was going to drag Lelouch out of the house, the last place he was expecting to pull up in front of the house of his most hated brother among all his siblings - Schneizel el Britannia.

He cast the most dangerous glare at Suzaku he could muster, the said friend nervously tapping his fingers on the driving wheel, and growled, "What. The. Fuck. Are. We. Doing. Here?"

The Japanese man swallowed thickly while running a hand through his hair nervously. "Listen, Lelouch, I know you hate your brother, but-"

"Why the fuck are we here?!" Lelouch repeated once again, and he would kill Suzaku with his own hands if his best friend didn't tell him _right now_ why they were here at his brother's house.

"Lelouch!" Suzaku finally snapped, tired of the raven haired designer's immature attitude. "You already know why we're. You know why we're here without me even having to say it."

"I didn't agree to it!"

"Your brother helped you out once before and he can do it again! You just have to ask him!" Suzaku shouted before getting out of the car and opening the side of Lelouch's door. "So get out."

Lelouch glared at him before turning around in his seat and stating stubbornly, "I'm not going anywhere."

" _Lelouch."_

"You'll have to drag me out of this car first."

Suzaku saw both him and Lelouch as mature men who had grown from their immature and irresponsible ways back in high school, but sometimes, once in a while, he saw that it was fit to go back to that time as that immature and irresponsible teenager, so he did exactly as Lelouch said.

He tried to drag him out of the car by his foot.

"Get off me!"

"Stop being a baby, Lelouch!"

"I'm not going in there, you bastard!"

"You are!"

"I'm not!"

"Schneizel helped you once before! He can do it again!"

"I'd rather die!"

While Lelouch and Suzaku probably thought they weren't making that much noise, it didn't take long before they heard someone clear their throat in the middle of their scuffle, causing them both stop mid action.

"Suzaku? Lelouch?"

There, in all his bastard glory, as Lelouch would say, was Schneizel in a white blouse untucked, dark blue dress pants, and black glasses. He looked on in small amusement, a smirk present on his pale face. "I thought I heard the familiar yell of my dear younger brother screaming "bastard!"

Lelouch looked unamused while Suzaku put - more like threw - Lelouch's foot back down on the ground. "Hello, _Schneizel,_ " the designer growled.

"Suzaku texted me earlier and said he wanted to make an appointment with me. I told him to just drop by the house first. It seems Father is causing trouble for you again," he explained.

"I can handle this by myself," Lelouch insisted. "I didn't ask this bastard to do anything."

Suzaku made a sound of offense, but Schneizel's smirk just widened. "I am a lawyer, Lelouch. I can get you out of anything."

"I'm not getting _any_ help from you."

Suzaku just sighed.

Schneizel shrugged. "If you insist. Do come in for tea, though. The maid just prepared some. That's not a request."

With that, Schneizel started down the concrete path and back to his house. Finally, after another thirty seconds of thinking it over, Lelouch exited the car while glaring at Suzaku the whole time.

"Why the fuck do you have his number anyway?" he grumbled.

"I have all your siblings' numbers."

"... Fuck you."

…

"Here. I know _he_ won't let you have it most times, but you deserve this," Euphemia smiled at her green haired friend while pushing a slice of pizza in front of her on a white plate. "It's pepperoni. Just how you like it."

C.C. looked at the slice of pizza and frowned slightly. Most times she'd eat it at every opportunity given, but it just made her sick right now. It strangely reminded her of Lelouch at the moment and she wanted anything to not think of him or remind herself of him.

She pushed it back towards Euphemia and mumbled, "I'm not hungry."

It was Euphemia's turn to frown at her friend. "You've worked all day, C.C. I know you're still upset about last night, but starving yourself won't do that, especially as a model."

"He threw me away," C.C. mumbled, closing her arms around herself and looking down in her lap. "He threw me away. I hate him so fucking much."

"But did he throw you away because he wanted to?"

"There's no way for that to sound right no matter how you put it, Euphy."

The pink haired woman chuckled slightly. "I've known Lelouch a very long time, C.C. He's my older brother, and he never does anything without reason, even if he doesn't tell anyone. Or even if it just makes him look like a huge, heartless asshole, it's because he cares."

"He cares too much. That's the thing, Euphy. You don't understand," the green haired model started to say as she narrowed her eyes at the girl. "I told him I didn't care and he went and did what he wanted anyway. He _threw_ me away. To his _father_ of all people.

"He just expects me to accept this and waltz into his father's company just to sign to it. I'm not doing that. I'd rather be destroyed by the media over our stupid deal we made. We made the deal because we're both stubborn idiots, and he's just scared because it was thrown back in our races. Neither of us expected it to go like this and he thinks making decisions on his own will fix the situation. It _won't._ "

Euphy looked on at her friend sadly. She was right. Lelouch was rash, and he did make decisions on his own out of love, but it never ended with the other person being happy within the situation. He cared so much that he never stopped to think of anyone else's feelings. It's what hurt the most.

"Don't give me that look," C.C. hissed, but then frowned at herself noticing she had snapped at her friend. "I'm sorry, but I don't need a pity party. I'm fine."

"You're not fine, C.C.," Euphy told her. "And that's okay. You can cry if you want to."

"There's no need for me to do so. I'm angry, not sad."

While the pink haired woman had her doubts, she sighed and pushed the plate over to C.C. "Well, if you aren't sad, can you at least eat?"

C.C. looked down at the pizza and frowned at it once again. It looked unappetizing still, so she said, "Maybe later."

Euphy knew she wasn't going to get any other answer, so she left it alone. She wasn't going to force C.C. into anything she didn't want to do at the moment.

"So," Euphy started, hoping a change of subject might help lift the tense atmosphere. "Are you excited for the designs you're going to be wearing?"

"The bastard really does make the nicest clothing…" C.C. muttered to herself, but Euphy heard it and smiled slightly. "The designs are exciting, but I'm not looking forward to that day. I don't want it to come."

"C.C…"

"That means it's my last day with Lelouch and who looks forward to the day you have to separate from something you really love."

"Are you… talking about you and Lelouch?" Euphy questioned to make sure.

"I feel like our relationship comes with separating from the company. He got rid of me after all," she said bitterly. "But I won't miss him. Not at all."

"I understand."

She did. She understood a little too well. While she did rarely go to see her Father, she never once missed him after leaving to be with Lelouch. She had been a child model under her Father's management for so long, so while it slightly hurt to leave him, she was better off with her older brother. She knew that the best.

"I think… "Euphy started, even if she knew that C.C. would probably cast a nerve wrecking glare at him. "That in the end, everything will work out."

"You're just a sunshine full of hope, aren't you?" C.C. asked, a small smile etching onto her face.

Euphemia shrugged slightly, but smiled back at her friend. "It's always easier to than be constantly disappointed."

"... Thanks… Euphy," C.C. said.

The pink haired model smiled again and got up from the table, taking the pizza slice with her. It was unusual for C.C. to not eat any pizza, but she'd save the slice and the rest of it for another day until C.C. wanted it.

…

While she was silently going through it, C.C. still had no choice but to attend fittings and work. _He_ might have made a bullshit decision without giving her a choice in it, but she was going to work her last days here doing her job best - Modeling. His mistakes weren't anyone else's and C.C. would not bring anyone else into this, even if she wanted to grab the nearest design and rip it into little tiny pieces.

For now, she was going through her schedule for the day with Cecile while they waited on their transportation for the day to arrive. While doing so, the one and only owner of this company entered the lobby through the front doors and honestly, C.C. herself was surprised he had even come in. He hadn't been present all day yesterday.

As always, he had to either dress himself up extremely neatly and precise, or wear flashier clothes than she did, but he unlike most times, his outfit was pretty simple today - A long, gray cardigan, a simple white v-neck shirt underneath, black dress pants, and a golden necklace hanging from his neck. It was simple, but as much as she didn't want to admit, he looked nice dressed that way.

Or was it her attraction to him talking rather than trying to act rational with her anger?

It could be both.

"Good morning, C.C. and Cecile," Lelouch greeted, not even giving them time to answer as he walked towards the elevators.

C.C. scoffed under her breath, wondering how he even had the audacity to greet her, so she didn't answer. Cecile, however, replied to him cheerfully and though his back was turned, the raven haired designer put a hand up in acknowledgement. He stepped onto the elevator, and it was hard for C.C. to miss his facial expression that went from its usual smugness to a deep frown.

She frowned herself. He had no right to be upset when she was the one who was being forcefully removed from her company, not _him._ She had it made it clear to Lelouch so many times that she wasn't scared of his father, and that she was willing to see the consequences for herself, but he decided that he didn't want to respect _her_ decisions.

"C.C.?"

The model turned her attention back to her manager, and she gave her a smile full of sympathy. She'd rather not have that, but C.C. knew Cecile meant no harm whatsoever. The woman only did what she thought would comfort her. Thankfully, the woman didn't mention anything about Lelouch in her next statement.

"You have a perfume commercial to shoot for today," she carried on after gaining C.C.'s attention again.

C.C.'s face fell flat at the mention of a "perfume commercial." She loved her fair share of perfumes, but sometimes the overwhelming smell of it for these shoots drove her insane. "Another one…"

Cecile chuckled. "I know you hate them, but it's the only thing you have to do today along with a lunch you scheduled with Miss Kozuki and Miss li Britannia. Have the rest of the day to yourself afterwards, alright?"

She couldn't help the small smile that reached her face. Cecile was such a kind woman. "Thank you, Cecile."

The blue haired woman gave her a bright smile.

…

"That bastard did what?!" the red headed woman seethed, knocking up the table slightly. Euphemia quickly went to save their drinks before they spilled all over the table.

She glared at the said woman. "Kallen!"

"Oh, sorry," she apologized quickly before turning back to C.C. with an angry look upon her face. "That bastard kicked you out of the company?!"

"Kallen, he didn't-"

"He's always thinking for himself and by himself! This is one of the reasons why we broke up!"

Euphy rose an eyebrow. "Kallen, you and Lelouch literally have such a long list of reasons on why you all broke up. Which one is it?"

"It was complicated," she answered quickly before turning back to C.C., who was messing around with her avocado salad on her plate. "And so you have to find a new company?"

"Charles zi Britannia… wants me."

"Oh, not that bastard," Kallen huffed, crossing her arms under her chest. "Euphemia and I were out of work for months under Lelouch because of him."

C.C. cringed at that. Lelouch had mentioned before how Charles basically had him blacklisted, but never once had he mentioned why or _how_ they managed to get out of it. "Lelouch… has mentioned that before," she reluctantly said and Kallen made an annoyed sound at the mention of her… Well, ex-boyfriend.

"Father is insistent when it comes to what he wants."

"He was more than insistent. That bastard-"

"Wait," Euphemia interrupted. "Which bastard?"

Kallen gave her a flat look. "Charles, Euphy."

"Continue."

"That bastard did his best to make sure he we had no work to the point Lelouch had to get Schneizel involved and that took so much convincing," Kallen remembered. "He almost threw a tantrum. What a baby."

"I could say just don't go to Father's company and go to another instead when your time with Lelouch is up, but that's more dangerous in itself," Euphemia said, her shoulders slumping at the thought of her friend having to unwillingly sign with a company she didn't want to.

"God, I wish I could just murder them both right now!"

"Kallen!" Euphemia gasped.

"How about I just quit?"

That statement stopped any argument Kallen and Euphemka were currently about to start as they both quickly snapped their heads towards C.C., who played around with her drink.

"What?"

"Repeat that."

"What if I just quit modeling?"

"Excuse my language, but what the fuck, C.C.?" Kallen blurted.

"None of this would be a problem if I just quit. Everything would go back to the way it was before. Charles will leave Lelouch alone and I'll pretend like I never once set foot into the fashion world."

"That is a dumbass decision, C.C."

That statement hadn't come from Kallen, surprising C.C. once she realized that the statement had come from her pink haired friend. "I know you easily entered the fashion world, so you didn't know how it worked, but you've worked really hard since Lelouch pulled you off of the damn street because he thought you were the perfect model, and you're going to throw that all away because our father can't take no for an answer?! This isn't like you to think this irrationally, C.C., and I disapprove of it. You're _not_ quitting."

"So she does have a backbone," Kallen muttered.

C.C. let out a small scoff under her breath. "I make my own decisions, Euphy."

"I'm not making a decision for you. I'm stopping you from making a decision that you're going to regret."

"How would I end up regretting it if it's going to fix the problem?"

"Because you're a dumbass just like Lelouch, C.C.! You don't think at all because you care about others! Now you're just doing what he's doing!"

Kallen leaned back in her seat, thoroughly impressed by the pink haired woman who was usually very soft spoken.

C.C. shot a glare at her and Euphemia returned it, refusing to be fazed by her friend's intimidating nature. "C.C., at the end of the day, I don't care what you do, but make a rational decision, not an _irrational_ one."

Euphemia let out a deep breath and quickly said, "I'm sorry, C.C., but your career isn't going to go down because of my-

"Bastard father," Kallen interrupted.

"Yes, thank you, Kallen." Euphemia pat the said woman's hand. She looked back at C.C. "I just suggest you make the right decision, C.C."

The green haired woman didn't say anything. She simply leaned back in her chair silently and opened up the menu that was in front of her to pretend she was skimming it and to think properly.

Quitting seemed like the best option, but… Maybe it wasn't.

…

"So… You want me to get Father to leave you alone because, excuse my language, you ended up fucking up the relationship with your girlfriend model?"

"... No."

"Yes."

"Which one, boys?" Schneizel asked as he sipped at his tea while eyeing the two younger adults in front of him.

"The latter," Suzaku smiled.

"Why the _fuck_ do you keep talking, Suzaku?" Lelouch asked him rudely.

"I'm trying to save the relationship between you and your girlfriend because knowing you, you'll let it die and mope for the rest of your life!" Suzaku told him.

"I will not!"

"Your high school girlfriend says otherwise!"

"I was sixteen!"

"Lelouch, you binge-eat ice cream when you mope. That is not healthy."

"... Alright, and?"

"You're so useless."

"Boo-fucking-HOO."

Schneizel watched as the two men went back and forth with one another and if he was going to be honest, until this day, he still didn't understand how his younger brother and Suzaku had become friends with one another. They were complete opposites of one another and all he remembers is that one day Lelouch was a loner who preferred to keep to himself, and the next, he started bringing this Japanese boy around everywhere he went.

He sipped the last of his tea before placing his cup of tea down and firmly saying, "Quiet."

The two stopped arguing and Schneizel narrowed his eyes. Suzaku shifted in his seat while Lelouch looked anywhere but him, causing him to chuckle. "I'll handle it," he decided. "That's all."

"Excuse me?" Lelouch rose an eyebrow.

"I'll handle it, so… Be on your way."

"What the hell are you up to, Schneizel?"

"I'm going to save your ass. Again. Father is a bastard," the blond shrugged. "He deserves to be ruined."

Lelouch's mouth fell slightly open as he put a hand over his heart in touch. "You… You mean that?" he asked for clarity.

Schneizel nodded with a small shrug. "If he died tomorrow, I would still be at home sipping tea."

"Schneizel!" Suzaku scolded but the blond ignored him.

"Oh, wow… And all this time I thought you were a selfish bastard," Lelouch said, still in shock.

"Alright, you're being weird," Schneizel told him, but a small smile crossed his lips.

"See, I told you this wouldn't be so hard," Suzaku said, turning to Lelouch who snapped out of his shock at those words. The raven haired man shot a harsh glare at him.

"I'm going to kill you, you bastard!"

"What did I do?!" Suzaku asked, scooting away from Lelouch.

Lelouch stood. "My brother is going to help me out, but you still brought me here without consent! Life isn't flowers and rainbows, Suzaku!"

"Wh- Ow! Lelouch!"

"You. Always. Have. To. Play. Glenda. The. Good. Witch!" He said as he tried to get a hit on Suzaku, but the brown haired man kept dodging him. "Gah!"

"Lelouch!"

Schneizel stood up quietly, dusting himself off, and calling for his assistant. "Kanon."

The man entered the room quickly. He glanced at the two men fighting in the background before turning back to his boss. "Master Schneizel?"

"Please get me another cup of tea," he commanded.

"As you wish, Master Schneizel, but um… What about them?" he asked, pointing towards Suzaku and Lelouch.

"Leave them be. They'll finish and escort themselves out."

…..

Later on, Suzaku and Lelouch went to the company because Suzaku absolutely refused to let him go back home to mope and eat unhealthy amounts of ice cream and then freaking out later about why he gained weight and eating like a bird.

Which was all unhealthy.

Instead, it was better to let Lelouch rant angrily while creating designs and sewing. It always did him good.

Suzaku was leaning on his hand as Lelouch grabbed a roll of fabric while angrily cursing his father. A small amused smile was on his lips as his best friend let out everything he had been holding in.

"And fuck that bastard! Fuck him! I've never met a more horrible person in my life! Schneizel is the most horrible person ever, but I wouldn't even fucking categorize him with our fucked up father!" He unrolled the fabric and took out a measuring tape. "And you know what? I love Mother, but fuck her too for even getting involved with that fucking bastard that's supposed to be my father because you know why?! He's a dirty, manipulative bastard and I wished he would just fucking _DI-"_

"Lelouch!" Suzaku cut him off because he was getting very loud at the moment and while only a few people were here, he would rather not people think someone was getting murdered. "I know you hate your father, but you're getting intense."

"If your father was a huge bastard, you'd be intense _too!"_ Lelouch hissed as he started cutting out pieces of the fabric.

Suzaku rose an eyebrow at Lelouch with a small smile. He didn't expect his best friend's brain to be working correctly at all, so he just reminded him that, "Lelouch. My father _is_ a huge bastard. Remember?"

Lelouch stopped in the middle of his movement with furrowed eyebrows until he let out a soft, "Oh," of realization. "I forgot."

He huffed. "Well, fuck your father as well. I can't stand any of these bastards and I wish them both gruesome de-"

"Lelouch!" Suzaku sighed as he stood up and put a comforting hand on Lelouch's shoulder. "I get it."

Lelouch's shoulders slumped and the grip on his scissors loosened at Suzaku's touch. "Do you… Do you think she's going to forgive me?" he mumbled.

"We have to see," Suzaku told him softly.

"I'm so dumb, Suzaku. I let my father get in my head and now I just… I ruined everything and after the fashion show next week… C.C. isn't coming back…" His voice cracked as he crouched to the floor. "I'm so fucking dumb…"

With a small sigh, Suzaku crouched down on the floor next to Lelouch, an arm thrown around his shoulder. "You're not… Dumb. Particularly. You just care about the people you love a little too much and sometimes it's not always okay. It makes you think irrationally."

"Is that an insult, a compliment, or reassurance?" Lelouch asked Suzaku lowly.

"Both?"

Lelouch hit him in the chest. He chuckled softly. "You're so useless…"

"But I'm a good friend, aren't I?" Suzaku smiled.

"I guess."

"So," Suzaku started, "The fashion show is in two weeks and you're gonna pick up your head and go in there like you own place as always. Bastard Lelouch is more confident than Sad Lelouch, isn't he?"

"I don't know if-"

" _No._ You hate for anyone else to act like the head bastard in charge, right? You can't show your father he scares you, Lelouch. Alright?"

"I can't believe your sappy speeches work on me," the fashion designer mumbled.

Suzaku shook his head with a small smile. "I try my best as your best friend and… I'm glad it worked."

"God, I hate you so much."

"I know you do."

Suzaku's smile widened and Lelouch returned it.

 **There's one more chapter after this, so I'm excited to show you all the last part!**

 **Read and Review!**


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